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FARM MANAGEMENT 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NBW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DA.LLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



BY 
JACOB HIRAM ARNOLD, A.B. 

Agriculturist in the Ofl5ce of Farm Management, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture 



il3eto gorfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1919 

All rights reserved 






COPYEIGHT, 1919 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and dectrotyped. Published July, 1919. 



©Gl,A530aG0 

JUL 25 1919 



NOTE 

It has been only in recent years that much at- 
tention has been given to the study of Farm 
Management. However, from the standpoint of 
practical farming, it is probably the most im- 
portant phase of agricultural study. The sub- 
ject being new, it is somewhat difficult to present 
in as logical and clear a manner as may be 
done when presenting other phases of agricul- 
tural science to which more attention has been 
given. 

The author has tried to avoid being technical, 
the principal aim being to interest the reader in 
the point of view of Farm Management rather 
than to give specific technical information. 

The figures used in the tables in the book rep- 
resent pre-war conditions. Since these figures 
are used to illustrate general principles rather 
than to give specific information, they are be- 
lieved to be less misleading than figures ob- 
tained under the abnormal conditions of the 
recent Great War. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I What a Farm Is ....... 3 

II Types of Farms 25 

III Advantages Gained by Situation . . 42 

IV Advantages Secured by Control . . 74 
V Farm Crop Problems ...... 98 

VI Problems of Livestock 123 

VII Farm Organisation . . . . . . 149 

VIII How TO Measure the Efficiency of 

Farm Organisation 176 

IX Business Methods and Principles Ap- 
plied TO Farming 192 

X Farm Administration ...... 210 

XI The State and the Farm 233 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



A View of Several Hill and Valley Farms . . Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

A Favourable Situation for Field Crops on a Mountain 

Side below Limestone Cliffs 54 

Terracing in some Situations is the Best Means of Con- 
trolling Soil Erosion 78 

Cattle Feeding may be a Means of Utilising Time Profita- 
bly, Marketing Corn to Advantage and of Maintaining 
Fertility 90 

The Cotton Crop Requires Much Hand Work and Em- 
ploys Family Labour to Advantage 106 ^ 

Chart Showing about the Amount of Labour Required on 
Crops and the Seasons when it is Usually done, — 
for Western Kentucky and Tennessee 111^ 

A Favourable Orchard Site in the Appalachiaij Mountains 116 

One Way to Waste Farm Resources 136 

Chart Showing the Distribution of Labour on a One-man 

Three-horse Farm 154 

The County Ag^nt Demonstrating to a Group of Farmers 

the Right Way to Prune an Apple Tree .... 236 



FARM MANAGEMENT 

CHAPTER I 

WHAT A FARM IS 

The common idea of a farm is that of a piece 
of land devoted to some agricultural use. We 
think of a farm mostly in terms of area of land, 
quality of soil, assorted crops and domestic ani- 
mals, having, generally speaking, little concep- 
tion of the really vital thing about it, namely, the 
adaptation, selection and adjustment of these 
factors which result in farm organisation. 
Much is heard about small farms, medium-sized 
farms, and large farms, yet the '^ large'' farm 
spoken of may be a small business, as compared 
with the business done on a ** small' ' farm. A 
potato-and-truck farm about one and one-half 
miles from Louisville, Kentucky, has an area of 
fifty-four acres, some of it under glass. Seven 
men are employed the year around and five 
work animals. One team is kept busy in haul- 



4 FARM MANAGEMENT 

ing stable-manure from the city, while nearly 
every day some farm-product is hauled to mar- 
ket. On a wheat farm in a western State, two 
men and twelve horses operate about one thou- 
sand acres of land. The fifty-four-acre farm 
near Louisville, however, is the larger business, 
in that more capital is required to run it, the 
expenses are greater, and the gross receipts 
greater. The farm near Louisville is valued at 
$700 per acre, while the thousand acres of wheat- 
land is valued at $15 per acre. 

How the Census Bureau Defines a Farm. — The 
Standard Dictionary defines a farm as follows : 
**A tract of land under one control or forming a 
single property devoted to agriculture, stock 
raising, dairy-products, or some allied indus- 
try.'' Every ten years the United States 
Census Bureau, in getting the data relating to 
farming, has had to define the farm. Since 1850, 
when the first complete Census was taken, the 
definitions have varied, and for this reason it is 
difficult to use census statistics in making accu- 
rate comparisons and drawing conclusions rela- 
tive to number and size of farms. The funda- 
mental consideration, however, in making these 



WHAT A FARM IS 5 

definitions seems to have been that of an area 
organized under one management, the time given 
to operate it and the size of the income from it. 
The following definition of a farm was furnished 
to the Census enumerators of 1910. A farm for 
Census purposes is all land farmed by one per- 
son managing or conducting agricultural oper- 
ations, either by his own labour alone, or with 
the assistance of the members of his own house- 
hold, or by hired employees. The term ** agri- 
cultural operations'' is used as a broad term re- 
ferring to the work of growing crops, producing 
other agricultural products, raising animals, 
fowls, and bees. 

A farm as thus defined may consist of a single 
tract of land or of a number of separate and dis- 
tinct tracts, and these several tracts may be held 
under different tenures, as when one is owned by 
the farmer and another hired by him: farther, 
when a land-owner has one or more tenants, 
renters, croppers, or managers, the land oper- 
ated by each one is considered a separate farm. 
The enumerators were further instructed to list 
as a farm three or more acres used for agricul- 
tural purposes, no matter what the value of the 



6 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

product or amount of labour ; also any tract less 
than three acres which produced at the time $250 
worth or more of products, or required the con- 
tinuous service of at least one person. 

Distribution of Farms According to Size.^ — ^In 
1910, 6,361,502 farms were enumerated in the 
United States, of which 839,166 were under 
20 acres in size; about an equal number fell 
into four groups based on the following area : 

20- 49 acres 1,414,376 

50-99 " 1,438,069 

100-174 " 1,516,286 

175-499 " 978,175 

There were found 50,135 farms of 1,000 acres or 
more, that is, one farm out of every 130. Of 
every. 9 farms, one was less than 20 acres, four 
were between 20 and 100 acres, three more be- 
tween 100 and 500, leaving the rest under 20 
acres or above 500. The average small farm in 
this country may be considered about 30 acres, 
the medium-sized about 160, and the large farm 
about 500. In the best farming-regions of the 

1 The Census Bureau listed the small areas tilled by crop- 
pers or share-tenants as farms. From the farm-manage- 
ment point of view, the cropper or share-tenant should, as 
a rule, be classed as a labourer rather than as a regular 
farm-tenant. 



WHAT A FARM IS 7 

United States, the Middle West, including Indi- 
ana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, the 
farms are medium-sized. Large farms are fre- 
quent in the semi-arid region, in the Pacific 
Northwest, in California, and in the Cotton 
States. Farms from 20 to 40 acres are princi- 
pally in the South or are truck farms near the 
large cities. 

The Farm a Human Institution. — The farm, how- 
ever defined, is distinctly a human institution. 
It is one of the means by which a human being or 
a family makes a living. When a farm is run 
as a business, it may be considered a means by 
which farmers may demand a share in the prod- 
ucts of society. Many farms, however, are 
not so situated that they can be made to pro- 
duce profitably; those, for instance, on poor 
soils, or inaccessible to market on account of dis- 
tance or bad roads, are likely to have small cul- 
tivated areas. Really in such cases farming is 
not, strictly speaking, a business — the main busi- 
ness being the cutting and preparing of lumber 
and other forest-products for the market, or per- 
haps grazing or mining. One or another of 
these factors accounts for the many small farms 



8 FARM MANAGEMENT 

found in the isolated regions of the United 
States. In the mountainous parts of Kentucky, 
West Virginia, and Tennessee the average cost 
of transportation ranges from 25 to 80 cents per 
mile. In some districts freight has to be carried 
on the backs of mules and horses, or even by 
men, on trails over steep mountains. Being 
thus disconnected with the mechanism of com- 
merce, and unable to compete for a share in mar- 
ket-products, the farms are relatively small, and 
the area cultivated is just large enough to pro- 
duce food for the family and for the few animals 
kept. 

Farms of three to nine acres in the United 
States develop also near large cities, where 
stable-manure may be had in large quantities, 
where there is a market for truck-crops, and 
where land is high in price. On the other hand, 
in the plains-region of the West, where the land 
is fertile and the rainfall low, farms of large 
area have developed. Where the annual rain- 
fall is from 15 to 20 inches, on the high plateaus 
east of the Eocky Mountains, farms of less than 
320 acres can rarely be made profitable ; those of 
640 to 2000 acres, with the larger part of the 



WHAT A FARM IS 9 

area in native grass, are more reliable, and in a 
series of years will produce a larger average in- 
come than farms of smaller size with more culti- 
vated area. Where resources for irrigation are 
available smaller areas are cultivated with 
profit. In regions where farm-organisation has 
grown out of the cattle ranch, the farms are 
often called ^'ranches." In the far West this 
term is the usual one to designate any agricul- 
tural project. Here a small poultry farm, for 
example, is styled a poultry ranch. The word 
is derived from the Spanish rancho, meaning 
primarily a mess-room, but used often in Mexico 
for a herdsman's hut; and so finally it came to 
designate a grazing farm as distinguished from 
a hacienda. 

The plantation, a type of farm formerly devel- 
oped in the Southern States, was large in area. 
The tobacco plantations in Virginia were from 
300 to 400 acres in extent up to several thousand 
acres. The average size of plantation in the 
seventeenth century was about 700 acres. The 
tobacco plantation of that time required a large 
area of land for profitable operation in order to 
make new land constantly available. As the 



10 FARM MANAGEMENT 

practice of keeping up fertility by means of 
fertilizers was unknown, and crop-rotations and 
turning under of green manures was not in 
vogue, when the land became **worn out^^ it was 
allowed to grow up in forest, and new tracts 
were cleared. Farther south, in the cotton- 
country, plantations were still larger, since the 
production of cotton requires a more extensive 
system of agriculture than does tobacco. In 
1860, the average farm in the South-Central 
States had about 321 acres, while in the North- 
Central States, the average size was but 140 
acres. 

The plantation as it existed for more than 200 
years in the South was a most interesting and 
important economic and social institution. The 
spirit of independence and self-reliance devel- 
oped almost to perfection among the fortunate 
owners of plantations. There was very little de- 
pendence on the towns for the handling and con- 
signment of farm-products, or of goods pro- 
duced in other parts of the world, and little need 
of the services of skilled workmen, or even of 
professional men. Thus the plantation was a 
sort of miniature principality, and the owner 



WHAT A FARM IS 11 

had the authority and the social status among 
his dependents that would naturally develop un- 
der such conditions. 

But while the plantation in 1860 was commer- 
cially the most important farm-unit, only about 
six per cent, of the white population in the South 
were plantation owners, with slaves as la- 
bourers. In the hill-country, and in the narrow 
valleys of the South, some millions of farmers 
were operating small areas of land, and pro- 
duced but little of value for the world-market. 
Many, however, were of the energetic and 
thrifty Scotch-Irish stock, and kept alive the 
small family farm — an institution which is win- 
ning its way under present conditions. 

Cropper and Share-tenant Farms. — In the proc- 
ess of adjustment under free labour there has 
developed in connection with the plantation the 
cropper and share-tenant system. The cropper 
works a small tract of land in tobacco and cot- 
ton, and receives as compensation for his labour 
a share of the crop. As a rule the owner fur- 
nishes the equipment besides the land, directs 
the operations performed, and in many cases the 
cropper performs a stipulated amount of labour 



12 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

for the owner, such labour especially as is re- 
quired for the general upkeep of the farm and 
its equipment. While, under the Census classi- 
fication, the area farmed by a cropper would be 
regarded as a farm, in reality the plantation or 
farm employing croppers is in almost all cases 
managed by the owner or overseer; in many 
cases the cropper lives on the plantation. Some 
years he may labour as a cropper and others as 
a year-hand — from the standpoint of the crop- 
per it is a matter of amount of wages. The 
regular farm-tenant, or renter, usually farms a 
larger area, furnishes a part or all of the 
equipment, and is not customarily compelled to 
work on demand for the owner. The land oper- 
ated in this manner is properly a farm. Planta- 
tion farming seems to have developed only in 
such sections of the country as had an abun- 
dance of ignorant and cheap labour, or where 
slavery was feasible and was allowed. The 
character of the main crops grown, cotton and 
tobacco, and the climate to which they were 
adapted were important factors in its develop- 
ment. The season must be long to provide work 
through the greater part of the year, and the 



WHAT A FARM IS 13 

climate mild so that the housing of labourers 
may be inexpensive. 

The Typical American Farm. — The typical 
American farm, however, began in New Eng- 
land, developed with the advance of population 
westward, and is the prevailing kind of farm in 
the Northern and Western States. It is a 
family farm, the work being mainly performed 
by the owner and his family. Any extra labour 
required is usually recruited from other farm- 
families, and the labourer thus employed be- 
comes a member of the household and does not 
lower his social status in the community by 
working for wages. This is no doubt partly 
owing to the fact that working for wages is only 
a step to becoming a farm-tenant and possibly 
an owner. Thus the men who labour on such 
farms are intelligent, have initiative, take re- 
sponsibility, learn to be self-reliant, energetic 
and thrifty. Because democratic institutions 
and customs prevail in such communities, men 
trained in this way find opportunity to employ 
their training in successful leadership along 
lines of industrial achievement and in the ad- 
ministration of political affairs. 



14 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

The Real Nature of a Farm. — Having now exam- 
ined the definitions given by such authorities 
as the dictionary and the Census Bureau, and 
having passed in review the main types of 
American farm, including the ranch, the planta- 
tion, and the market-garden, have we any clearer 
idea of what a farm is? All definitions are 
made for the purpose of clear thinking, and al- 
though in defining terms distinctions are more 
or less arbitrary there is always some funda- 
mental mark of distinction which the ordinary 
mind attaches to the thing named. So in a farm 
there are necessarily two elements: (1) a por- 
tion, large or small, of the earth's surface, on 
which nature will, if properly encouraged, cher- 
ish some crop or some animal fitted for the use 
of man; and (2) a man to assist nature in that 
operation. The dictionary calls a farm * * a tract 
of land under one control, etc. ' ' Now it is this 
human control, this plan, or in other words this 
organisation, that forms the essential element of 
a farm as a means of making money or of mak- 
ing a living. Not alone the number of acres, the 
qualities of the soil, the climate, the place, but 
the management of all these factors by the 



WHAT A FARM IS 15 

farmer in such a way as to bring about desired 
results, determines the actual value of any given 
farm. 

The same thing is true of other human institu- 
tions devised for the same purpose — a bank, for 
instance, or a shoe-store. The ordinary per- 
son's conception of a bank is that of a more or 
less substantial-looking building, with fire-proof 
and burglar-proof safes, and well-dressed of- 
ficials at desks behind bars; the bank always 
seems to have plenty of money on hand, and on 
the whole banking appears to be an easy, clean, 
and generally desirable occupation. The vitally 
important concern of a bank, however, is the re- 
lation of size of loans to profits, the amount of 
cash to be kept on hand according to the require- 
ments of the season of the year, the placing of 
its assets where they can earn most, the knowing 
how much to loan to a given person at a given 
time. These problems are the vital and signifi- 
cant things about banking. 

The uninitiated see in a shoe-store an assort- 
ment of various kinds of shoes, and it might ap- 
pear that to run a shoe-store successfully all 
that was. required of the manager was the keep- 



16 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

ing constantly on hand an assortment of goods 
likely to please customers. Probably this vague 
idea of this business and others is the reason 
why so many who undertake them fail at first, if 
not permanently. Success in the shoe-business 
depends on the ability of the manager to select 
goods which will please his customers, and in 
such quantities as he can dispose of at a profit. 
The climate is a factor in the shoe business as it 
is in farming, and a variation from the normal 
weather of a season subjects the business to 
danger of loss ; and unless these possible varia- 
tions have been taken into consideration in fix- 
ing prices and selecting stock, the business un- 
der present conditions of sharp competition 
must fail. 

In the same way the casual observer when 
passing by a farm is not likely to be impressed 
with the idea of organisation. The layout of 
its fields appears to be rather accidental. A few 
uncultivated patches appear here and there with 
no apparent reason. He is likely to think of 
the wasteful habits of the farmer as he sees im- 
plements scattered about, buildings arranged in 
irregular order, and possibly standing in a some- 



WHAT A FARM IS 17 

what dilapidated condition. The manager of 
such a farm, however, may see it from an en- 
tirely different angle. In his mind the general 
appearance of the farm is merely incidental to 
its purpose, the arrangement of the different en- 
terprises, and their equipment. The organisa- 
tion of the farm does not show from the outside. 
The general plan, the balance between the pro- 
portion of different animals, or kinds of live- 
stock, and the number of acres of each kind of 
crop he may grow and dispose of to advantage, 
are more vital than the outside appearance. 
The location of the farm and arrangement of its 
buildings may even appear bad from the stand- 
point of residence and city conveniences, while 
to the manager their advantages are known, and 
may have vital significance in determining 
profits. It is often the case, in fact, that a farm 
that has on the outside the appearance of being 
substantial and convenient in arrangement and 
proportion is not a profitable one. At the same 
time there is no reason why a farm should not 
both present a good appearance and be organ- 
ised on a paying basis, just as well as a bank. 
How Farm Organisation has Developed. — Many 



18 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

established enterprises, of whicli the farm is one, 
may be managed successfully by persons who 
are not conscious of any organisation or plan in 
particular. We all know good farmers who 
take pride in the belief that they follow no sys- 
tem or particular rule, who think they decide 
without logic or are undetermined in their 
activities. But when the actual practice of all 
such farmers in a given locality is studied and 
analysed, it is found that they carry on similar 
farm-activities during certain seasons, the limits 
of which are pretty definitely established, the 
quantity and kind of work done following a 
normal standard. This will be readily under- 
stood if we remember that the farm as a human 
institution is very old indeed, older than any 
form of government, or any kind of marriage 
now in use in civilised countries; and that its 
growth has been a continuous process, so that 
present farming practice is in reality a com- 
pound of traditions gathered from the remote 
past, influenced by local conditions, improved 
occasionally by bold experimenters, changed un- 
consciously along with other changing customs. 
Only recently has it been consciously modified by 



WHAT A FARM IS 19 

intelligent, scientific methods. Therefore as 
long as conditions remain permanent which have 
allowed a certain system of farming to become 
established as profitable, the only necessary 
thing in attaining average success as a farmer 
is to inherit the ways and customs of one^s 
father, or to do as the neighbours do. 

In point of fact, American farm-practice is 
largely the result of combining the agricultural 
traditions of the early settlers with the practical 
experience of the Indians. In organisation and 
general management the modern farm has been 
greatly influenced by English agriculture. The 
English early brought in hogs, sheep, cattle, 
horses — all kinds of livestock and poultry, with 
the exception of the turkey. Most of the com- 
mon grains, vegetables, grasses, and legumes 
were introduced from England. Of course all 
nationalities who helped colonise our wastes or 
had commercial relations with us contributed 
something, but English practice both in the de- 
tails of management and in rural economy seems 
to be dominant. From England we get the prin- 
ciples of the rotation of crops, and the principles 
underlying the cultivation of the soil. The laws 



20 FARM MANAGEMENT 

relative to holding and conveying land, etc., have 
their origin in the land-laws of England. 

In New England the land was usually granted 
to some group of men who desired to form set- 
tlements. These lands were then allotted to in- 
dividuals who had the religious, moral, and 
political qualities making them desirable citi- 
zens. The farms were small and situated near 
a town of which the church was the most con- 
spicuous and important institution. Certain 
areas on the outskirts of the town^s centre were 
designated as commons. This grouping of agri- 
cultural areas around a common centre was 
necessary as a protection from the attack of 
Indians. 

In Virginia land was more commonly granted 
to individuals who became proprietors of large 
estates. One of the best known of these was the 
Lord Fairfax estate, including the eastern pan- 
handle of West Virginia and parts of Virginia. 
During the life of Lord Fairfax holders of land 
on his estate did not possess titles of ownership. 
Tenure was based on the payment of a small 
rent designated quit rent. Later, Virginia 



WHAT A FARM IS 21 

passed a law making the holders of land in this 
section legal owners. 

Instruction by Indians. — Indian corn and to- 
bacco, together with various garden vegetables, 
were grown by the Indians when settlers first 
came to America. The agricultural practice of 
growing maize was taught New Englander and 
Virginian alike by the Indians, although the 
white man did not become a willing learner until 
convinced that he could not live long on enthusi- 
asm, or on the expectation of finding gold. The 
corn-land was cleared by ** deadening '' the trees, 
girdling them before the sap rose in the spring. 
The trees afterwards rotted, were blown down 
by the wind, and finally burned. Exactly the 
same thing may be seen on thousands of acres 
in the eastern mountains to-day. 

The Indians planted their corn in hills, three 
to four feet apart each way, and were careful 
that the three or four grains in each hill were 
separated by half an inch or more, a practice 
whose full economic value has only recently been 
demonstrated by scientific agronomists. They 
planted corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes in 



22 FARM MANAGEMENT 

the same field, the cornstalk serving for the 
beans to climb on. They had devised the under- 
ground pit for storing both corn and vegetables, 
and the corn-crib set up on posts to keep out 
squirrels and other pests. Many a man now liv- 
ing, who was brought up in the pioneer settle- 
ments of the Middle West, remembers very 
vividly similar practices among white farmers. 
In fact many of these practices are still to be 
seen in up-to-date communities; and in the 
mountainous districts of the East the Indian 
method of cultivating the corn-crop is followed 
almost precisely, save that the ^* bull-tongue '^ 
plough, wooden harrow and corn-knife take the 
place of the shoulder-blade of the deer and 
crooked sticks as cultivating implements. The 
wooden husking-peg used by many boys on 
farms thirty or forty years ago was invented by 
the Indians. 

Even the paled-in garden, so marked a feature 
of the farm layout in the eastern mountains to- 
day, was of Indian origin ; and the scarecrow, so 
conspicuous an object in many a small cornfield, 
undoubtedly developed from the Indian practice 
of stationing a boy on a platform in the centre 



WHAT A FARM IS 23 

of the field, armed with bow and arrows to kill 
or frighten away crows and other enemies of 
the crops. Tobacco growing, although later 
greatly modified, was directly learned from the 
Indians. 

The Future of the Farm. — So the age-old customs 
on both sides of the world became blended in the 
common farming methods of the United States. 
But ancient as the farm is, it is still full of youth 
and promise. The scientific research that has 
turned the world topsy-turvy with its inventions 
and discoveries, and the social research that has 
begun to perform almost as startling miracles in 
its way, have only recently turned their atten- 
tion to the problems of the agriculturist. Yet 
already, not only on isolated farms here and 
there, but in whole communities may be seen the 
changes that come from the free use of the 
power of steam, electricity, and gasoline, and 
also from a conservative development of co- 
operation and social action. 

Thus a farm, considered as an outgrowth of 
the past, conceived in the light of its opportuni- 
ties and possibilities for the future, is in a sense 
a living, interesting and complicated institution, 



24 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

worthy the best effort of mind and physical 
strength. Opportunities for larger profits, and 
the more general desirability of farming as an 
occupation, lie along the line of organisation in 
the light of a comprehensive knowledge of all 
the resources at hand. 

LITERATURE RELATED TO THE SUBJECTS DISCUSSED 

Thirteenth Census of the United States. 

Economic History of Virginia in the Sixteenth Century — 
Bruce, 2 vols. 

Virginia and Her Colonies — Fiske. 

History of Virginia — Kercheval. 

Corn Culture by the Indians — New York Bulletin. 

Industrial History of the United States — Coman. 

Rural Economics — Carver. 

Letters from an American Farmer — Crevicoeur. 

English Agrarian Problems During the Sixteenth Century — 
Tawney. 



CHAPTER II 
TYPES OF FARMS 

In the chapter preceding this it was pointed 
out that the organisation of farms varies accord- 
ing to situation and historical development. In 
some places the typical farm is large, in others 
small; some farms derive nearly all their in- 
come from a special enterprise, such as wheat, 
dairy products, fruit, or fat cattle, others are 
diversified, deriving an income from several 
sources. We would naturally expect that the 
most successful farms would be those which had 
so adjusted their organisation as to secure the 
advantages of soil, climate and market oppor- 
tunities. 

It is of practical importance for the farmer to 
understand the conditions that have influenced 
the development of varying types of farming, 
and that have enabled such types to be profit- 
able, so that he may have a basis for judgment in 

25 



26 FARM MANAGEMENT 

readjusting a type already established, or, in 
case he has occasion to decide on a type in new 
surroundings, so that he may use his judgment 
intelligently. Farmers migrating into a new 
country have, as a rule, tried first the type of 
farming and the farm-practice with which they 
have been familiar, with little consideration for 
soil, climate, or the market-factors that may de- 
termine success or failure. Gradually, and at 
considerable loss, the type of farming must be 
adjusted to these factors. Those who fail to 
make this adjustment will of necessity go into 
some other line of work. 

Very few who are managing successful enter- 
prises are conscious of the process by which 
successful organisation has been secured — of 
the failures and successes of those who have had 
a hand in building them. Just so in farming. 
Men have tried different ways of doing things — 
some fail, others succeed. In the end, those who 
happen to be most favourably situated, who 
have hit upon the right enterprises, and the 
right proportion in the adjustment of these to 
market-opportunity, and to the time available 
for handling them, will win success. Thus the 



TYPES OF FARMS 27 

type gradually evolves which is best adapted to 
any given place. 

The farmer is familiar with the dairy type 
and the beef type of cattle ; with the draft-horse 
type and the saddle-horse type. The general 
meaning of ^^type'^ is well understood. When 
we compare farms from the standpoint of the 
means by which they are to accomplish results, 
that is, to produce an income, we naturally 
classify them in a similar manner. The fruit 
farm, the truck farm, the wheat farm of the 
West, the tobacco farm, the cotton farm of the 
South, the dairy farm of New England, Wiscon- 
sin, and Minnesota; the corn-and-cattle-feeding 
farm of Iowa and Illinois ; — all these are illus- 
trations of various types of farming which have 
developed in the United States. When these 
classifications are made there is in mind a domi- 
nating or characteristic enterprise which makes 
one farm different from another. In a general 
way, livestock farming is characteristic of the 
northern zone of the United States. Going 
south, the proportion of income from livestock 
decreases, and that from products raised di- 
rectly from the soil increases. It would thus 



28 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

seem that there were certain natural or eco- 
nomic advantages which cause the farmer in the 
Northern States to seek profits from livestock 
and in the Southern States from field crops. As 
will be seen in the further course of this chapter, 
this difference in the development of farming 
enterprises is in fact due to such advantages. 

Such natural resources and factors as soil and 
climate would tend to make such differences in 
development permanent. Economic conditions 
being an important factor, such natural advan- 
tages will not of themselves insure success, yet 
certain unfavourable natural conditions are 
often controlled — for instance, the cattle-tick 
has been controlled in the South to such an ex- 
tent that in many localities the raising of cattle 
has become profitable. 

In order to understand the principles under- 
lying the development of types of farming, at- 
tention is directed to regions where definite 
types have developed. 

Dairying in Wisconsin.— In southern Wiscon- 
sin, for instance, the dairy industry has devel- 
oped to a marked extent, so that to-day Wiscon- 
sin ranks first in the production of dairy-pro- 



TYPES OF FARMS 29 

ducts. The industry is pretty well distributed 
over the southern half of the State, yet more 
concentrated, however, in certain counties. It 
is an interesting fact that within this area 
special kinds of dairy farming, have developed. 
At the present time the making of Swiss cheese 
is largely confined to the high, rolling land, rich 
in lime, found in Green, Dane and LaFayette 
counties, and the near-by region. The eleva- 
tion above sea-level here is about 1,000 feet. 
The mean summer temperature is cooler than 
in lower surrounding altitudes. The summer 
rainfall is normally abundant, amounting to 
nearly four inches per month during the months 
of May, June, July, and August. 

It is said that the same kind of cheese is made 
in Switzerland on similar soil and in a climate 
with similar characteristics. Nearly half a cen- 
tury ago the cheese industry started in Jeffer- 
son county, Wisconsin, but has shifted eastward 
to the cool shores of Lake Michigan where most 
of the American cheese is now made, and west- 
ward onto land rougher in topography and 
higher in altitude, thus having a climate some- 
what cooler. On these limestone highlands all 



30 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

the Swiss cheese of the United States is pro- 
duced. Probably the factor of land-value had 
something to do with this shifting, when the 
lower, more level, land became more valuable 
for a different type of farming. In 1875 Jef- 
ferson county produced more cheese than any 
other county in Wisconsin while to-day it leads 
the State in butter production and the cheese 
factories have been almost entirely driven out. 
Corn and silage encourages winter dairying and 
butter production while pasturage encourages 
summer dairying and cheese production. At 
present, more than two-thirds of the land where 
the Swiss-cheese industry flourishes is in pas- 
ture, showing that rough land, if adapted to 
pasture-grass, is about as valuable for this pur- 
pose as is the more level and rich land. There 
may be hundreds of localities in the United 
States as well adapted to this industry, but the 
facts given illustrate the point that a given 
farm-enterprise once started will tend to be- 
come established where conditions are most 
favourable for its development. Many locali- 
ties in the United States might be pointed out 
where certain types of farming have been 



TYPES OF FAEMS 31 

started and failed because conditions did not 
prove favourable for their development. 

A general climatic factor in the northern 
parts of the United States, which has an impor- 
tant relation to the dairy type of farming, is the 
proportion of time that may be utilised in work 
on field-crops to the total working days of the 
year. In the latitude of southern Wisconsin, 
northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa, at an 
altitude of 700 to 1,000 feet, the number of days 
available for field-work will not exceed 150. 
The dairy type of farming gives an even dis- 
tribution of work throughout the year. It 
gives the farmer profitable employment dur- 
ing nearly half the year when practically no 
work can be done on field crops. 

Cattle-feeding in the Corn-belt. — A type of farm- 
ing is found in northwestern Iowa which is com- 
mon to many parts of the corn-belt. The region 
between the grazing districts of the less humid 
areas of the West and the stock-market centres 
of the East has been favourable for the develop- 
ment of the cattle-feeding industry, and a farm- 
organisation there has been adapted to this op- 
portunity. In the first place, the soil and 



32 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

climate are adapted to corn-growing, the soil be- 
ing a deep black loam warming up quickly in the 
spring, which in that latitude is an important 
factor in making the growing season sufficiently 
long to mature the corn-crop. The late fall and 
the winter months are normally cold and dry, 
enabling the farmer to gather a large crop. 
Cattle require little expense for sheds, and fat- 
ten well on corn with oat straw and a little 
clover hay for roughness. This type of farm- 
ing will continue to be profitable as long as the 
conditions supporting it continue 

The present type of cattle-feeding farm like 
the dairy farm, enables the farmer to occupy 
his time to advantage. Pioneer farming, when 
land was cheap in that region, was of the grain 
type — ^wheat, flax, corn, and oats being the prin- 
cipal sources of income. This kind of farming 
did not occupy the available time for work as 
fully as does the present one, but on account of 
the cheapness of the land, and the good prices 
for grain-products, it was for that time prob- 
ably the most profitable type. Besides, in the 
early history of this region clover did not grow 
vigorously; later it became adapted to the soil, 



TYPES OF FARMS 33 

and is now one of the important factors in mak- 
ing this a corn-growing section. When land 
became higher in price corn, wheat, oats and 
flax did not produce a sufficient labour-income. 
Under the pioneer organisation the land lost in 
fertility, and the farmer could occupy his time 
only during the short period of about 150 days 
available for field-work. Eeorganisation grad- 
ually took place. Clover became adapted to 
the soil and was introduced into the rotation 
as a soil-improver, and as a valuable hay 
and pasture crop, and cattle-feeding enabled 
the farmer to occupy the winter months profit- 
ably. 

Mixed Farming in the East. — The type of farm- 
ing developed in the great limestone valley of 
Virginia is an interesting one for study. It is 
not only common in the best farming-district of 
the Middle Atlantic States, but is a fair illustra- 
tion of the more general prosperous American 
farms. An ordinary farm in this section is 
about 215 acres in area, of which 10 acres will 
be in woodlot, 5 acres in orchard, 72 acres in 
pasture and waste land. The balance will be in 
field crox)s — wheat 63 acres, corn 35 acres, 



34 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

meadow 30 acres. Another distribution of field- 
crops on a similar farm in the same section 
might be — corn 48 acres, wheat 30 acres, clover 
and timothy 50 acres, used partly for meadow 
and partly for pasture. This distribution of 
field-crops would indicate that in a general way 
the farms are planned for two rotation-systems 
— one in which wheat predominates and the 
other in which more corn, clover and grass is 
raised. A farm on which wheat is dominant 
might have as a source of income the following 
enterprises : 

stock-products : 

50 lambs, say $280 

Wool 25 

30 hogs 600 

130 chickens 100 

7 dairy cows 250 

2 horses or mules 300 

10 head of cattle 500 $2,055 

Crop-products: 

63 acres of wheat $1,000 

5 acres of apples 800 1,800 

Porest-products : 

Logs or ties 20 

Total $3,875 

The income from such a farm as this would bo 
about equally divided between livestock and 
crop-products, and would be for that reason a 



TYPES OF FARMS 35 

general farm with, stock-products slightly pre- 
dominating. The total expense of snch a farm, 
including all charges for interest on a total in- 
vestment of about $25,000, depreciation, etc., 
would range between $3,000 and $3,500, leaving a 
labour-income of $500 to $1,000. On this type 
of farm nearly all the corn and hay products 
would be fed to stock. Now and then a few tons 
of timothy hay might be sold. In case more 
corn and hay were raised, the sources of income 
would, on the average farm, be approximately 
as follows : 

stock-products : 

16 beef-cattle $1,280 

50 lambs 280 

Wool 25 

45 hogs 800 

130 chickens 100 

7 dairy cows 250 

2 horses or mules 300 $3,035 

Crop-products : 

30 acres of wheat $500 

5 acres of apples 800 1,300 

Forest-products : 

Logs or ties 20 

Total $4,335 

On this type of farm nearly seventy per cent, 
of the income would be from stock-products, 
thus making it more distinctly a stock-farm. 



36 FARM MANAGEMENT 

The expense of labour on such a farm would be 
somewhat decreased and a little better dis- 
tributed, but the total expenses would be in- 
creased, since cattle would have to be bought for 
feeding purposes, and some extra concentrated 
feed would also need to be purchased. The 
total expense on such a type of farm would be 
$3,500 to $4,000. The farmer who had skill in 
selecting quality of stock and whose credit was 
good for borrowing money when needed, would 
have an opportunity to make such a farm yield a 
larger income than could probably be done on 
the first type of farm. With more stock, the 
yield of crops could be increased with less cost. 
A careful study of farms in this region would no 
doubt demonstrate the fact that one or the other 
type was established, and persisted where situ- 
ated, because of some natural or economic ad- 
vantage. 

Bluegrass Farming.— In travelling through that 
part of Kentucky known as the Bluegrass 
Region, one is impressed with the large propor- 
tion of level, rich, agricultural land in bluegrass 
pasture. A striking and significant feature in 
the landscape is the large forest-trees scattered 



TYPES OF FAKMS 37 

over the farms, showing that farmers consider it 
important to provide shaded places here and 
there for grazing animals. Until recently the 
breeding and training of saddle-horses and the 
raising of cattle for export were profitable agri- 
cultural enterprises. The grazing and feeding 
of cattle, sheep raising, and the raising of vari- 
ous classes of horses and mules, are still impor- 
tant enterprises ; but restrictive laws relative to 
racing in other States, which formerly provided 
a profitable market for this class of horses, has 
naturally been a factor in the development of 
new methods of farming. 

Within the last twenty-five years the planting 
of Burley tobacco has become one of the domi- 
nant enterprises in this region. Now tobacco 
and wheat are the principal sources of income 
direct from the soil. It is evident that greater 
diversity has resulted. 

The income from a modern, successful, blue- 
grass farm of about 300 acres might be stated 
as follows in the order of magnitude of enter- 
prises : 

Live stock $3,400 

Tobacco 1,900 

Wheat 600 



38 FARM MANAGEMENT 

Livestock products 500 

Corn 200 

Hay and forage 200 

Miscellaneous 100 

Total $6,900 

Broadly speaking, types of farms may be 
classified primarily on the basis of percentage of 
income from the two sources, livestock and 
plants. Taking three great groups of States, 
and comparing the source of income on this 
basis in percentages, it will be found that : 

Livestock Crops 

1 1 Northern States 40 60 per cent. 

7 Southern States 11 89 per cent. 

5 Western States 38 62 per cent. 

Within these groups will be found some types, 
such as the grain-type found in Kansas, 
Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota, where 
about 50 per cent, of the income is from cereals. 
In such States as New York and Wisconsin 
about 25 per cent, of the total income is from 
dairy-products, showing a tendency toward the 
dairy type. Two cotton States show that 60 per 
cent, of the entire income is from cotton alone, 
indicating distinctly cotton-types of farms. 

Changes in Type.— In almost every region 
where economic conditions are especially un- 



TYPES OF FAEMS 39 

stable, old methods are disappearing and new 
ones are developing. On the western slope of 
the Allegheny Mountains, in West Virginia, in 
localities where towns and cities are growing, 
the change to new and more profitable systems 
of farming has not been sufficiently rapid to 
show as yet the type that should prevail. In a 
small county, where there had been time for re- 
adjustment, three profitable types were discov- 
ered. The general farm, 200 to 300 acres in size, 
so placed that a profitable income was received 
from livestock and field-crops; and the dairy 
and fruit farms, 60 to 100 acres in size, were 
more profitable than the average large farm. A 
still more profitable type was the small truck 
and dairy farm between 10 and 60 acres in size, 
the spare time of the owner being used in doing 
outside work with a team. This last type made 
the largest net income. In another district, un- 
der entirely different conditions, where grazing 
was profitable, the large farms of 400 to 1000 
acres were most successful. The smaller farms 
attempting to handle the same enterprises in the 
same way will have to change or go out of busi- 
ness. 



40 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

The history of farming shows many examples 
of change in types of farms. The history of 
English agriculture tells how at one time areas 
thickly occupied by small farms two and a half 
to thirty acres in extent, gradually changed into 
stock farms of 200 to 1000 acres. Similar 
alterations are bound to occur in our own coun- 
try. In special localities, such as those near 
large and growing cities, the larger general 
diversified farms are dividing into smaller units, 
and are the coming types such as the dairy or 
truck farms. On the other hand in some locali- 
ties of the Middle "West farms grew larger dur- 
ing the last decade, tending toward the more 
distinctly stock type of farms. Present indica- 
tions, however, point toward a more intensive 
agriculture which will result in smaller farm 
units. 

Those who are doing the farming are not con- 
scious of developing any particular type, nor do 
they have this in mind. When thought is given 
to the problem of change in methods or in organ- 
isation it is to select particular crops or live- 
stock-enterprises that appear to have possibili- 
ties of more profit. It may seem that advan- 



TYPES OF FARMS 41 

tages are to be secured by more diversity, or by 
enlarging the farm acreage, getting control of 
more capital, etc. 

In the analysis of a farm-business it is of pri- 
mary importance to have the type so defined that 
the problem of finding out the strong and weak 
places in the organisation may be simplified. 



CHAPTER III 
ADVANTAGES GAINED BY SITUATION 

In 1910 about 46.2 per cent, of all the land in 
the United States was in farms ; of this amount, 
54.4 per cent., or about a quarter of the whole 
area, was improved. Of the uni^roved land in 
farms, about one-half was in woodland, and one- 
half unimproved. In travelling over the east- 
ern half of the United States, one observes large 
areas of forest-growth, especially in the moun- 
tainous districts. In the North-central States, 
on the other hand, more of the land is under cul- 
tivation. In the better farming regions of Illi- 
nois, Minnesota, and Iowa, about 85 to 90 per 
cent, of the farms is under cultivation, and 
nearly all of the land-area is in farms. 

Reasons for Choice of Farm-lands. — In occupying 
land in the United States, farmers have selected 
those areas that seemed to them the most profit- 
able, for the chief factors entering into the selec- 

42 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 43 

tion of farm-lands have been natural product- 
iveness, faith in ultimate prospects, and in rise 
in value. In a new and undeveloped country the 
first settlers have usually had to experiment 
with soil-conditions. Those who ventured into 
the unoccupied regions of the West did not 
select the most productive land. Other con- 
siderations at the time were of more vital impor- 
tance. Fuel and water were necessities, and 
they had to have access to these. 

In western Kentucky, for instance, the com- 
paratively poor shale and sandstone soils were 
first chosen by white settlers. These soils were 
heavily timbered, and had an abundant supply 
of water in small streams and in springs. The 
more fertile soils derived from limestone were 
largely treeless, and for that reason would have 
been better adapted to agriculture, but most of 
the streams in the limestone area found channels 
underground, so that reliable springs could be 
found only occasionally. Farmers, however, 
soon learned to store surface-water for stock in 
the sink-holes common there. This device, and 
the making of wells and cisterns, gradually en- 
abled them to make use of the more productive 



44 FARM MANAGEMENT 

lands. Much of the most fertile agricultural 
lands in the United States could not have been 
made available except through means of secur- 
ing a water-supply for men and animals. 

Railways have been a principal factor in the 
selection of the best agricultural lands. These 
have not only settled the fuel-problem, but made 
markets accessible, and transportation-rates 
cheap. Railways have made it possible to carry 
corn, hay, butter, and meat-products from the 
naturally productive farms in the North-central 
States to eastern and southern markets more 
cheaply than the same things can be produced at 
home. 

The Best not Always Available. — It is a general 
idea that favourably placed agricultural lands 
are scarce — that most of the areas having a pro- 
ductive soil and humid climate are owned and 
held at prices commensurate with the advan- 
tages they include. There is a certain measure 
of truth in this general belief. It must be re- 
membered, however, that almost every genera- 
tion since the country began to be settled took 
this view of the future, because to the majority 
of people opportunities have always seemed lim- 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 45 

ited. Moreover, those conditions that make 
opportunities are dependent on forces over 
which persons individually have no control. 
The rich Shenandoah Valley held out no oppor- 
tunities to Virginians until Governor Spots- 
wood found a way over the Blue Kidge Moun- 
tains. Daniel Boone discovered a way over the 
Cumberland Gap to the bluegrass region of 
Kentucky, thus making accessible a large area 
of fertile land. The building of railroads 
opened up opportunities on the prairies of the 
Mississippi Valley. 

It seems now that agricultural opportunities 
in the future must occur through a study of the 
resources and factors that exist in areas already 
occupied. 

Basis of Value. — Under normal conditions, 
agricultural land-values are based on the cap- 
acity of a farm to yield a satisfactory income 
under its existing management, plus whatever 
speculative value it may have. Such farms of- 
fer no special advantages to prospective buyers 
unless by superior organisation or more skilful 
management they can be made to furnish better 
incomes. When land becomes very high in 



46 FARM MANAGEMENT 

price, only the most skilful farmers will either 
own or rent the land. 

This principle is illustrated by many exam- 
ples in the history of agriculture in the United 
States. The prairie-lands of the central West 
were first utilised as grazing-lands. When 
these lands were demanded at a high price for 
general farming purposes, the cattle-men left 
them, and the grain-farmers took possession. 
As the land advanced in value, grain farming be- 
came less and less profitable, and other types 
had to supplant it. In such cases of reorganisa- 
tion the former owners either sold out and new 
farmers came in, or the former owner adapted 
his farm to new conditions. 

Personality in Settlement.— Certain types of 
farming demand farmers of special training. 
Thus, near a large city, where trucking may be 
profitable, only farmers skilled in this branch of 
agriculture will remain in the business. The 
unsuccessful ones will have to select other types 
in a different locality or find other employment. 
This explains the fact that groups of farmers 
bearing a certain nationality will be found oc- 
cupying farms in a group — most successful 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 47 

truck-farmers are of foreign origin. The dairy 
farms of Wisconsin, which produce our Swiss 
and American cheeses, originated among Ger- 
man and Swiss immigrants. In the far West, in 
the vicinity of such cities as San Francisco, the 
Chinese or Japanese do most of the truck-farm- 
ing. 

An interesting and important fact to be noted 
relative to the selection of agricultural land is 
that the migration of people west of the Alle- 
gheny Mountains has proceeded quite definitely 
along lines of latitude. This parallelism of mi- 
gration has probably characterised pretty much 
the whole migration-movement in the United 
States during the past one hundred years. In 
parts of Oklahoma and Texas every third man 
may be recognised as being from Kentucky or 
Tennessee. The ancestors of most of the pres- 
ent population of Kentucky and Tennessee came 
from the Valley of Virginia, or from the pied- 
mont and coastal regions of North Carolina. 
People from New York, Pennsylvania and New 
England have gone across the Northern States 
to the Pacific Ocean. Migration from Euro- 
pean countries has proceeded in a similar man- 



48 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

ner. Scandinavian and Russian farmers are 
found in Minnesota and the Dakotas and Ger- 
man farmers are scattered over the central por- 
tion of the United States from New York and 
Pennsylvania to Missouri and Illinois. A few 
farmers from southern Europe are found in col- 
onies along the eastern and southeastern coasts. 
Social Influence on Distribution. — Many factors 
have combined to influence people in selecting 
new residences — climate, natural routes of 
travel, railroads, nationality, religion, political 
and social ideals. Farmers, in moving from one 
district to another, take with them, of course, 
not only their habits of farming, but other insti- 
tutions. Thus, wherever the New Englander 
went there was planted the family farm, the 
town-system of local government, the public 
school, and the small college. These, of course, 
became modified in time to the demands of new 
surroundings and the conditions of general 
progress. Before slavery ceased to exist in the 
South the plantation form of farm-organisation 
was moved westward wherever favourable agri- 
cultural areas were obtainable. This type of 
farm required for operation a large amount of 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 49 

capital invested particularly in land, labour and 
power-equipment. The small farmer who could 
not command a large amount of capital for such 
an organisation felt* compelled to withdraw from 
these more favourable agricultural areas to seek 
opportunity and residence on land less favour- 
able for farming, but where independence and 
the pioneer standard of respectability could be 
maintained. 

As long as rich, productive lands were avail- 
able railroad building went on at a rapid rate, 
the invention of agricultural machinery devel- 
oped to meet the requirements of agricultural 
production on a large scale, and the expectation 
of and faith in coming prosperity continued to 
be realised. It was only when farmers came 
face to face with the problems of a dry country 
that this faith in spontaneous and inevitable 
prosperity received a severe shock. 

Problems of Location.— In the older agricul- 
tural regions wherever farmers have had to deal 
with difficult problems those who could have 
run away from them to secure advantages in a 
newer and more agriculturally promising West. 
So fixed has this national habit become that 



50 FARM MANAGEMENT 

large numbers of farmers have given up citizen- 
ship in the United States and crossed the bound- 
ary into Canada or Mexico, in order to secure 
the advantages believed to be attached to a new 
and undeveloped country. Because in recent 
years many have failed to realise expectations in 
these undeveloped regions, attention has turned 
to securing advantages in other ways. This in- 
volves study and the intelligent working out of 
problems by individual farmers, aided by the 
agricultural literature and scientific knowledge 
put at their disposal by the States and the Fed- 
eral Government. 

By intelligent selection of a location for a 
farm, waste in labour and other resources may 
be avoided, and such natural and economic ad- 
vantages may be secured as will save expense in 
adapting the farm to the purpose intended. 

The problem of organising a farm in a new 
and undeveloped country is a difficult one, for 
the reason that few farmers have clearly in 
mind just what type of farming they ought to 
follow. From this point of view, the location of 
a farm should be made a matter of as serious 
and intelligent calculation as the location of a 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 51 

department-store, a bank, or a factory. The 
factors that make such enterprises successful 
are pretty well understood, and no one venturing 
on one of these enterprises would fail to make 
calculations, based on all available data, or to 
hire the expert services of those who make 
a business of calculating the feasibility and prac- 
ticability of such undertakings. 

Although the science of farm-management is 
not yet sufficiently developed to afford the bases 
of such complete calculations, yet sufficient in- 
formation is available to assist very materially 
in the selection of a location. 

The vital and important problem of the 
farmer in managing the farm is to secure such 
natural and economic advantages as may be 
within his reach or his ability to secure. These 
advantages are obtained either by settling where 
they prevail, or by devising such means of con- 
trol as will secure them. The natural resources 
to be taken advantage of are those dependent on 
soil-conditions, climate, topography, and acces- 
sibility to market. The economic resources to 
be secured are such as depend on transportation- 
facilities, market-agencies, market-reputation of 



52 FARM MANAGEMENT 

the community, banking-facilities and credit. 
Natural resources differ from economic re- 
sources in that they are more permanent, rela- 
tive to location, while economic resources are 
necessarily more liable to change. Advantages 
which are of secondary importance from the 
point of view of farm-management, but which 
may be of primary importance from the stand- 
point of the family, are the reputation of the 
neighbourhood, and the presence of good 
schools, churches and other social advantages. 

Soil Surveys.-— The United States Bureau of 
Soils had made soil-surveys covering an area of 
703,235 square miles, up to July, 1913. These 
surveys have been made in various States, and 
an elaborate classification created on the basis 
of the physical and mechanical properties. The 
types of soil found in a definite area are mapped 
in published bulletins, and the productiveness of 
each tjTDe is in a general way measured in terms 
of yield-capacity. These are available helps in 
determining the advantages any neighbourhood 
offers. The real agricultural value of soils is 
dependent not only on natural fertility of the 
surface-soil, but upon the manner of its forma- 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 53 

tion, the structure and condition of the ground 
beneath, the character of the underlying rock 
(when it is residual), the amount and size of 
stone embedded in it, its drainage capacity and 
topography. Many of these conditions form 
impediments in the use of machinery. The 
farm-value of land depends also largely on the 
number of acres of tillable soil that can be 
farmed in a single tract. Unless a considerable 
area of land that is tillable can be thrown into a 
field, men, horses, and machinery work at a dis- 
advantage. Conditions of this kind prevail es- 
pecially in mountainous regions, but they pre- 
vail to some extent, at least, in all regions where 
the soil is residual. Soil-surveys have not 
specified all these conditions, but in general 
farming they are of the greatest importance. A 
general knowledge of the geology and physical 
geography of a region, in addition to the soil- 
surveys made, will aid in interpreting the agri- 
cultural possibilities of a soil-type in those 
regions, especially where it is derived from the 
rock beneath. 

Comparative Qualities of Soils. — The soils in the 
eastern half of the United States are generally 



54 FARM MANAGEMENT 

benefited in their productive power by the appli- 
cation of lime, as well as by commercial ferti- 
lisers. Much of this land has a tendency to be 
**sour/' making the growing of red clover and 
alfalfa especially difficult. Certain crops are 
found to be *^acid tolerant/* such as Irish or 
sweet potatoes, crimson clover, and to some ex- 
tent corn, cow peas and soy beans. Thus a type 
of farming might become adapted to **sour'' 
soils. In the western part of the United States 
much of the soil has a tendency to be too alka- 
line, and this tendency is increased by irrigation. 
There are, of course, **sour" soils in the West 
which would be benefited by the application of 
lime. The problem of alkaline soils is connected 
with low rainfall and imperfect underdrainage. 
In the great agricultural area of the Middle 
West, neither of the above conditions seem now 
to exist to the extent of creating a serious prob- 
lem. 

The point is that in estimating the value of a 
proposed location from an economic point of 
view, all these factors should be measured and 
added to the cost of the land, when comparing 
the advantages with those of another place. If 




Fig. 2. A favourable situation for field crops on a mountain 
side below limestone cliffs 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 55 

a farm were twenty or thirty miles from a ship- 
ping-point, the application of commercial ferti- 
liser or lime would, as a rule, be unprofitable on 
account of the expense of hauling. 

In some parts of the United States soils have 
peculiar properties in inducing certain specific 
qualities in plants. An illustration is tobacco 
soils. In western Kentucky, the dark-tobacco 
district, a certain quality of tobacco (dependent 
partly on the soil) is produced for which a 
special market has been developed, and the same 
quality cannot be produced elsewhere; conse- 
quently that district has a monopoly of that kind 
of tobacco. It has been found recently, also, 
that particular soils and climates grow a good 
quality of hard wheat. For instance, a given 
variety of wheat grown in the semi-arid climate 
of the Middle West is different in its physical 
and chemical characteristics from the same va- 
riety grown in a more humid climate. Thus the 
environment of plants has a great deal to do 
with the production of quality, which is often 
reflected in the price of such crops. 

A multitude of particular advantages of soil 
are known to the practical farmers of a region. 



56 FARM MANAGEMENT 

They have learned to measure them in selecting 
sites for certain types of farming, and for the 
growing of particular crops; and it is always 
wise for a prospective buyer in any locality to 
interview the resident farmers, and learn why 
it is that certain areas on their farms are al- 
lowed to grow up in timber or are devoted to 
permanent pasture. The chances are that 
the owner has a good reason for this, and has 
found from experience that it is not profitable 
to cultivate such land under present condi- 
tions. 

On a high, level plateau in a South-central 
State may be observed the remains of many 
commercial orchard-plantings. In many cases 
the nearest shipping-points were in the valley 
1,000 to 1,200 feet below, and 15 to 20 miles dis- 
tant. In addition to these disadvantages the 
soil was poor and the topography ill suited. Of 
course most of these orchards were abandoned. 
Such orchards were not planted by native 
farmers, but by thrifty, enterprising immi- 
grants and business-men from outside, who usu- 
ally despised the achievements and practices of 
native farmers. These attempts in establish- 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 57 

ing fruit-growing proved to be of benefit, how- 
ever, to the region in general, if not to the un- 
fortunate individual starting them, for at the 
present time thrifty and profitable orchard and 
small-fruit enterprises are established there in 
more favourable situations. 

A few years ago, in one of the Rocky Moun- 
tain States, a company started a large irriga- 
tion-farming project on some 50,000 or 60,000 
acres of land. A system was devised by which 
five-acre tracts could be irrigated, and around 
each tract lay an area of 100 or more acres on 
which crops could be grown during the most 
favourable years without irrigation. The com- 
pany promoting this project, costing many thou- 
sands of dollars, did not take into account the 
fact of an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000 feet above 
sea-level, where the growing season was 100 to 
120 days, and where nothing except cabbage, 
timothy, and a few other cool-weather crops, 
could be grown. They did not consider that 
even such truck crops as could be raised would 
have to be shipped with difficulty many miles to 
an uncertain market. As a result of not taking 
into account such physical facts, this company 



58 FARM MANAGEMENT 

naturally failed, and the land at the present time 
is on the market at an exceedingly low price. 
Profitable farming may be established in such 
a region, but it must be of a sort adapted to the' 
situation. 

Dependence on Climatic Conditions. — The suita- 
bility of a farm-location for any particular type 
of farming is dependent on climatic conditions, 
such as rainfall, growing season, and available 
days for field-work, and to such disadvantages 
as diseases, insect-pests and the weeds incident 
to the local soil and climate. 

Climate is an important factor in farm man- 
agement. The Weather Bureau of the United 
States Department of Agriculture has taken 
records during many years past of climatic 
observations in all parts of the United States, 
and has published them in bulletins showing the 
average amount of rainfall and other features 
for many localities. The temperature-records 
for each month of the year, and the frost-data, 
from which may be calculated the growing sea- 
son, are important things for the farmer and 
the student of farm management to analyse and 
interpret. 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 59 

Other things equal, the benefits from a given 
amount of rainfall depends on situation. 
Twenty inches of rainfall from May 1 to October 
1 in a district where the summer is long and hot 
may not be as efficient as fifteen inches during 
the same period where the average temperature 
is lower. It is well known that the nature of the 
soil, and the wind-velocity, modify the effective- 
ness of rainfall. On account of all these factors 
combined the statement of the average rainfall 
of any region indicates the degree of humidity 
only in a general way. England, for instance, 
has an average rainfall of less than forty inches, 
but has a notoriously humid climate. 

The availability of the rainfall at a given 
place depends very largely on its distribution, 
the winds and the condition of the soil. Where 
the rainfall is even as low as twenty inches, and 
where most of it comes during the growing 
season, where the soil is such that it will re- 
tain moisture well, and dry, hot winds do not 
prevail, the climate might be sufficiently humid 
to grow certain field-crops very advantageously. 
The ability of the soil to absorb and retain suf- 
ficient moisture is sometimes more important 



60 FARM MANAGEMENT 

than the amount of rain that falls. It would not 
make any difference how much water is poured 
into a leaky pail if it runs out as fast as it is 
poured in. Just so with soils — if the subsoil is 
of such a nature that it will retain but little mois- 
ture, and will not transmit freely ground-water 
to plants, statistics of the amount of rainfall 
would have little significance, although fre- 
quency might be an important factor. Again, 
in a highly humid section the soil may be shal- 
low, and lying on rock incapable of transmitting 
much moisture from below. In this case, a few 
days drought during the hot weather may burn 
a crop. It is for this reason that in some 
specially humid districts, where the annual rain- 
fall is as high as forty-five or fifty inches, 
patches of ground here and there are observed 
to be covered with cactus, so characteristic of the 
desert. 

Calculating Amount of Working Time. — The 

growing season is generally defined as the num- 
ber of days between the average date of the last 
killing frost in spring and the average date of 
the first killing frost in the fall. It is deter- 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 61 

mined primarily by latitude and altitude. Soil 
conditions, topography, and direction of ex- 
posure are secondary factors that determine the 
growing season at various points in a country. 

In going north or south from a given point the 
growing season varies approximately at the 
rate of one day for every seven miles in latitude 
and one day for every 60 feet in altitude, vary- 
ing somewhat, of course, under local condi- 
tions. 

An important farm resource but one generally 
overlooked is the number of available days for 
field work. These are limited primarily by tem- 
perature. The secondary factors are rainfall, 
soil-condition, topography and field-exposure. 
Like the growing days, such available days will 
vary with the distance north or south of a given 
point, and also with altitude. 

In central Georgia, farmers may employ 
about 250 days of the year working on crops in 
the field; in northern Tennessee and south- 
western Kentucky about 180 days; in central 
Iowa about 140 days ; in central western Minne- 
sota about 130 days; on top of the Allegheny 



62 FARM MANAGEMENT 

Mountains (3,500 feet elevation in West Vir- 
ginia) about 130 days, and in North Carolina, at 
a similar elevation, about 150 days. 

In places where 200 to 250 days are available 
for field-work, an important advantage is se- 
cured for growing field-crops. It is partly 
because of this advantage that in southern lati- 
tudes the incomes direct from crops are greater 
proportionately than from live stock. In a gen- 
eral way the same relation holds good relative to 
elevation. On the higher elevations in the 
South, more of the farm income is derived from 
stock products, showing that the farmer in such 
locations believes that a greater proportion of 
his time spent on live stock brings in a better 
farm income. 

A soil that drains well and is not made up of 
too fine particles, or a loamy soil well filled with 
vegetable matter, will allow a longer season for 
field work in the same latitude and altitude than 
will ill-drained, non-porous, heavy clay soils. 
The soil condition alone may cause a varia- 
tion of 10 to 20 days available for field crop 
work. 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 63 

Effect of Climatic Conditions on Size of Farms 

Going from the eastern part of the United 
States westward across the Great Plains, the 
most noticeable climatic change is the decreas- 
ing rainfall. As the changes of temperature 
observed in going north or south are reflected 
in the types of farming, the variation in rain- 
fall going east or west shows its effect in the 
size of farms. 

The idea that a good size for a family farm 
is about 160 acres has long held sway in this 
country and was embodied in the Early Home- 
stead law. Under conditions of ample rainfall 
and good tillable land, this made a good sized 
family farm. On specially fertile soils and un- 
der conditions where a more or less intensive 
type of farming is profitable, even 80 acres of 
land is large enough. 

Generally speaking, however, where the land 
is poor in quality or where there is lack of rain- 
fall, farms must be larger in size to be equal in 
production. For instance, in the Great Plains 
region east of the Eocky Mountains, where rain- 
fall and temperature are the outstanding fac- 
tors in profitable agriculture, farms must be 



64 FARM MANAGEMENT 

considerably larger than 160 acres to be equiva- 
lent in productiveness. This, of course, would 
not apply to irrigated farms or farms on river- 
bottom lands. Except in such favored places 
the farmer must be reconciled to extremes in 
crop production. He must count on years of 
low yields and occasional failures, which are 
compensated for by years when yields are high. 
Average yields, though, will be low as com- 
pared with yields on farms farther east. 

In the dryer parts of this region where there 
is still room for the development of farms, it is 
rarely the case that a family farm can safely 
contain less than 640 acres. When the rainfall 
is as low as 12 to 15 inches, 1000 to 2000 acres 
without irrigation would be about the least num- 
ber of acres a farm should contain to be profit- 
able. A large amount of the land should re- 
main in native grass to be utilised by live stock. 
Live stock combined with grain raised under 
dry farming practices is, as a rule, the only safe 
type for this area. 

When these principles are observed in choos- 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 65 

ing a farm in a new country, the chance of fail- 
ure is greatly lessened. Furthermore, in buy- 
ing or renting land under such circumstances the 
buyer should always consult farmers experi- 
enced in the locality on such points as the mini- 
mum size that a farm should be, how much of it 
should be cultivated, and the amount and kind 
of live stock that should be kept to properly 
utilise the pasture. 

The failure to observe these safeguards in un- 
dertaking the business of farming under unfa- 
miliar conditions has often resulted in financial 
losses and frequently has led to disastrous and 
even tragic results. 

Accessibility of a Market — Accessibility of the 
shipping-point is an important advantage to be 
sought in locating a farm. This often deter- 
mines the type of farming that may be profitable 
in a location. In the case of general farming a 
distance of more than ten to twenty miles from 
the shipping-point will, as a rule, make the rais- 
ing of crops for market unprofitable. "When the 
distance is more than one day's drive to and 



66 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

from the shipping-point the expense of hauling 
will consume profits. For illustration take a 
wheat-crop. One man and a two-horse team 
may, on an average road when dry, haul fifty 
bushels. If the man and team went such a dis- 
tance as to require staying over night the cost 
would be, under average conditions : 

1 man and team, 2 days@$4.00 per day $8.00 

Meals and lodgings for man 1.50 

Livery bill for horses 1.25 

Total $10.75 

This would make the hauling cost 21i/^ cents per 
bushel, which in most cases would more than 
eliminate profits. 

Peach-orcharding as a commercial enterprise 
is seldom profitable when the market is more 
than ^ve miles distant. In the case of apple or- 
chards the distance may possibly be as great as 
one day^s travel to and from the shipping-point. 
A 20-barrel load may be hauled over a fairly 
good road with four horses 10 to 12 miles and 
return in one day. The average cost of that op- 
eration in the East would be about $5 per day. 
This would be 25 cents a barrel for transporta- 
tion. Should such charges exceed 50 cents per 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 67 

barrel, profit, in most cases, would disappear. 

The average cost of hauling farm products in 
the United States is not far from 20 cents per 
ton, per mile. On mountain roads in the East 
the cost of hauling various commodities varies 
from 20 cents to 87 cents, the average being 
about 39 cents. 

One place may have an advantage over an- 
other because of freight rates and shipping 
facilities. There are localities which have pe- 
culiar natural advantages for growing certain 
crops, but the cost of getting the products to 
market is too great, and with some crops of a 
perishable nature the time of getting the prod- 
uct from the farm to the consumer is an impor- 
tant factor in the problem. 

Sundry Considerations. — In the business of 
farming it is important to be able to borrow 
money on reasonable terms. In order to do this 
credit must be established. Credit is estab- 
lished largely through square dealing with 
neighbours and business firms for a long period 
of time in one locality. For this reason it is a 
distinct disadvantage to go from a place where 
one has established a good business reputation 



68 FARM MANAGEMENT 

to a new locality. As a rule, where agriculture 
is the main industry, the farmer is provided 
with good banking facilities, and money is 
loaned at reasonable rates. 

When those who handle and distribute prod- 
ucts want to buy, they go to those centres where 
such products are raised in car-load lots, and 
where quality is standardised. Apple-buyers 
go to regions where standard varieties are 
raised in large quantities, and where the fruit is 
graded and packed in a standard manner. 
Buyers of hogs and cattle go where farmers 
make a business of growing these products on a 
large scale. Where only here and there a 
farmer tries to produce something not common 
to the community, there is great disadvantage in 
marketing. 

In some localities the growing of crops has 
been made profitable by the establishing of mar- 
keting-associations. In Jefferson County, Ken- 
tucky, for instance, the profitable growing of 
Irish potatoes in competition with other potato- 
growing regions is due primarily to the develop- 
ment of efficient marketing-associations. The 
growing of such products as strawberries for 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 69 

the general market is profitable only when ef- 
ficient shipping-associations are organised. 
Yet many opportunities occur for selecting a 
situation where a local market for special enter- 
prises may be developed. There are places 
where a few special farm-enterprises, like dairy- 
ing, trucking or poultry-raising, could be made 
profitable, although an attempt to develop such 
enterprises on a large scale would surely meet 
with failure. 

Persons who live in a community where ade- 
quate protection of person and property by law 
and by custom is taken for granted, seldom 
realise how important such protection is in 
farming. In many places the raising of sheep 
for wool, and lambs for market, is practically 
impossible because it is the custom to allow dogs 
to run at large. Where some persons impose on 
the rights of neighbours, and where lawless acts 
occur, farms will not prosper, however advan- 
tageous may be the soil and other resources. 

Where labour is scarce and wages high, other 
things equal, farming must be done at a disad- 
vantage. The seriousness of labour-problems 
on the farm depends much on the type of farm- 



70 FARM MANAGEMENT 

ing. Tobacco and cotton require that a large 
amount of cheap labour be available. The same 
is true of many lines of fruit and truck farming. 

The advantages of a region tend to become re- 
flected in the price of land ; in other words, they 
are capitalised, and the man buying a site must 
pay a price commensurate with them. In a 
given locality, land having superior soil will be 
higher in price than land of poorer quality. A 
farm so near a shipping-point that the farmer 
may make two trips a day instead of one will 
have a higher price than a farm so situated that 
but one trip may be made. Just how much this 
difference will be depends on conditions which 
will vary in different localities. The factor of 
distance will be of greatest importance where 
products are to be hauled to market. Some- 
times, as is the case with such products as 
peaches, strawberries, or tomatoes, the kind of 
product has much to do with the economic ad- 
vantage of distance from shipping-point. 

Importance of Good Roads. — It has been esti- 
mated that a good road will add in certain lo- 
calities twenty-five per cent, to the value of a 
farm having connection with it. Measured in 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 71 

terms of economic advantages alone, the amount 
will evidently vary with the kind of farm-enter- 
prises, the time of year products are marketed, 
the climate, etc. 

In regions where grazing is a major farm-en- 
terprise, or where, as in the North Central 
States, cattle-feeding and hog-feeding are ex- 
tensively practised, well built, hard roads are of 
relatively little economic advantage to a farm. 
This accounts largely for the fact that in some 
of the richest farming communities the roads 
during the late winter and early spring months 
are in a condition beyond adequate description. 

In northern Iowa, in Minnesota, the Dakotas, 
and in much of Kansas and Nebraska, where the 
winter and early spring months are dry, haul- 
ing may be done during these months, when the 
ground is frozen to a considerable depth. In 
this region the road drag has proved to be an 
efficient implement for maintaining roads in fair 
condition. Because of general farm-advan- 
tages the automobile has come into use in this 
region, and has had a great influence in produc- 
ing and maintaining good roads. 

Situation a Factor of first Importance. — In this 



72 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

chapter the discussion of the problems of farm 
location has dwelt almost entirely on physical 
and economic conditions. It must be evident to 
the reader that much time and resources may be 
expended in a vain attempt to make a living, or 
profits, in farming, not because of a lack of 
knowledge of the details of growing crops, or 
handling the soil properly, or lack of organisa- 
tion or administrative ability, but on account of 
a lack of specific information relative to factors 
involved in situation. Without the means of in- 
terpreting and measuring the physical and eco- 
nomic advantages of a definite location a farmer 
must meet his problem in a groping and unin- 
telligent manner ; in fact in the past the develop- 
ment of difficult problems has forced him out of 
business and into new circumstances where he 
hoped that advantages would come to him. The 
farmer should be able to measure as accurately 
as possible the advantages and disadvantages of 
any particular place, and if he finds that the nat- 
ural disadvantages are too great to be offset by 
scientific management, it will be wise for him to 
go elsewhere. 

The writer is fully conscious of other than eco- 



ADVANTAGES GAINED 73 

nomic advantages related to the problem of 
farm location, but they are fundamental in mod- 
ern civilisation. The wants of a majority of 
people living within reach of commercial facili- 
ties are supplied indirectly through their contri- 
bution of labour, of capital, or other resources, 
to industrial society. This results in a competi- 
tion for money which, in all commercially acces- 
sible places, is exchangeable directly for most 
things that people want. 

Advantageous home-surroundings, school and 
church privileges, protection of personal and 
property rights, social and political opportunity, 
are desirable things which normal people want. 
The patriotic, unselfish and normally consti- 
tuted man or woman will consider these among 
the advantages to be secured when seeking a lo- 
cation for a farm. 



CHAPTER IV 
ADVANTAGES SECURED BY CONTROL 

In the previous chapter an attempt was made 
to point out and illustrate the advantages to be 
secured by situation. If a farmer wanted to 
grow wheat and had in mind economic advan- 
tages only, he would naturally seek the place 
where he could produce it at lowest cost, where 
the transportation-rates were favourable, and 
where a good quality of grain could be produced 
in order to get the best price. 

The farmer may, however, secure those ad- 
vantages by means of control ; that is, instead of 
seeking a place where soil, climate, and markets 
seem naturally most favourable, he may, to some 
extent, at least, manage his affairs in a way to 
secure these advantages where he is. Whether 
a farmer should change his situation, or use 
means to control an unfavourable environment, 
is largely a question of cost. 

The physical conditions related to the farm 

74 



ADVANTAGES SECUKED 75 

which the farmer may control to a more or less 
extent are moisture, drainage, soil-fertility, soil- 
erosion, and to some extent the climate. Wet 
land may be drained and made to produce well ; 
arid or semi-arid land may be irrigated, or other 
means used to obtain sufficient moisture to pro- 
duce crops desired. The tobacco-planter or 
truck-gardener need not necessarily wait for a 
favourable season to plant his crop, for he may 
in a large measure create favourable conditions 
of soil by the use of well-established and prac- 
tical methods. Science has recently discovered 
means to control the bacterial diseases and in- 
sect-pests of plants and animals, also to secure 
desirable qualities in both by the process of 
breeding. It is important that the farmer know 
that means are available, and to learn in detail 
the process of applying these means with profit. 
Good management is shown in using these 
means with economic sense and judgment. 

It is evident that these improvements and 
means of control require expenditure and la- 
bour, material and implements. Drainage is a 
permanent improvement, and will thus increase 
the value of the land, and interest must be 



76 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

earned on this increased value. The temporary 
control of moisture-conditions by such means as 
rolling, dragging, ploughing under cover-crops, 
etc., requires labour, implements and material, 
the cost of which must be charged to the crops. 

Control by Drainage. — A system devised for a 
14-acre field illustrates the usual method of 
drainage. Tile was laid about three feet deep 
and fifty to seventy-five feet apart. Table 1 is 
a copy of an itemised cost-statement covering 
materials and labour. The cost per acre of the 
area underlaid with tile is thus seen to be about 
$28. The entire fourteen acres has been bene- 
fited by this system, however, so that the cost 
per acre, distributed to the fourteen acres, 
would be about $22 per acre. 

The cost given does not include services of an 
engineer to locate the lines for ditches and their 
depth. 

TABLE 1. SHOWING ITEMISED STATEMENT OF COSTS FOR 
DRAINING A 14-ACRE FIELD 

4000 pes. 4 in. tile per 100 feet $1.00 $76.00 

000 pes. 8 in. tile per 100 feet 5.70 51.30 

716 pes. 6 in. tile per 100 feet 3.75 26.85 

10 Y'a 8x4 in. tile per 100 feet 40 4.00 

1 Y 8x6 in. tile per 100 feet 35 .35 

1 Y 6 X 4 in. tile per 100 feet 30 .30 

$158.80 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 77 

Ploughing out furrow for ditches .... $5.50 

Hauling the tile , 15.00 

Labor, laying and blinding the tile. . 104.89 

$284.19 

This is a fairly typical case, and the illustra- 
tion is given to point out the principles involved, 
and to show the farmer hew to approach the 
drainage problem. 

Such means of controlling the physical con- 
dition of the soil add a great deal to the cost per 
acre, and the results in production should war- 
rant such expenditures. On the fourteen-acre 
tract above referred to at least seven per cent, 
interest should be earned on the $284.19, the 
cost of the system, to cover, in addition to inter- 
est on the investment, the cost of repairs, de- 
preciation, etc. This would amount to about 
$21 a year, to be earned on the tract in addition 
to former profits. 

In the case of many farmers it may seem im- 
practical to purchase tile. Some of these men, 
however, live where stone or timber is plenti- 
ful — materials that may be used instead of tile. 
The following directions for using timber to 
drain wet land were written for the instruction 
of Roman farmers more than 2,000 years ago : 



78 FARM MANAGEMENT 

If the land is wet it should be drained with trough-shaped 
ditches, dug three feet wide at the surface, and one foot at 
the bottom, and four feet deep. Blind these ditches with rock. 
If you have no rock, then fill them with green willow-poles 
braced cross-wise. If you have no poles fill them with faggots. 
Then dig lateral trenches, three feet deep and four feet wide, 
in such a way that the water will flow from the trenches into 
the ditches.i 

In a general way these are well-stated direc- 
tions. Possibly the trenches are wider than 
necessary. The depth, however, is about the 
standard advised by drainage experts. Many 
farmers who have little or no cash with which to 
buy drainage materials have time which could 
not otherwise be used profitably, and could 
greatly increase the net income of the farm by 
applying labour to such permanent improve- 
ments. 

SoU-erosion. — The erosion or washing away of 

- soils is a serious problem in many localities. 

' Surface-soils everywhere are gradually being 
carried away to lower levels, and under certain 
conditions this removal is very rapid. Some- 
times a single storm will carry away one inch 
or more of top-soil over a large area of fertile 
fields, often destroying crops. While no means 

1 Roman Farm Management, by a "Virginia Farmer." 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 79 

are available by which soil-erosion may be en- 
tirely prevented, the farmer may reduce the rate 
of erosion to such an extent as to maintain the 
soil-resources of the farm. 

Underground drainage as described above will 
greatly lessen soil-washing by allowing more 
water to flow away underground. Deep plough- 
ing has been found to be a practical and inex- 
pensive means to accomplish similar ends and in 
some cases subsoiling will answer. A deep 
layer of soil well filled with vegetable matter 
has been shown to retain a large amount of 
moisture. Such a layer of soil seems to act like 
a sponge, while a soil devoid of such matter runs 
together, and is easily taken up by water and 
carried away. The fact that the soils of the 
Southeastern and South-central States are pe- 
culiarly liable to injurious erosion is no doubt 
due partly to their comparatively low humus- 
content. 

A special means for controlling soil-erosion is 
terracing, a practice common in some of the Cot- 
ton States, such as South Carolina and Georgia ; 
and to some extent throughout the region where 
mountain-agriculture prevails, and where soil is 



80 FARM MANAGEMENT 

especially liable to erosion.^ This is done by 
contour ploughing (sometimes a scraper is used) 
in such a way as to leave ridges athwart the 
slope at certain measured distances. Between 
these ridges the natural erosion will tend to 
level up the land. Terraced land is more or less 
inconvenient to cultivate, and on the steeper 
slopes involves much expense. 

Often when the soil on a field is left exposed 
for a comparatively long time before a crop is 
put on it, single furrows may be run at proper 
distances apart around the hill. Such furrows, 
properly made, will check the rapid flow of water 
over the surface, and distribute it gradually to 
lower levels without injurious effects. Such 
simple means cost virtually nothing when done 
in connection with regular necessary operations. 
Often a little intelligent consideration given to 
ways of cultivating the soil, or of driving over it 
with wagons, or other implements, may prevent 
disastrous effects. Leaving a cultivator-furrow 
on a slope toward the foot of a hill makes a 
channel for water to flow down freely; and 

1 Bulletin No. 17, North Carolina Geological Survey: The 
Mangum Terrace, U. S. Dept. Agr. B. P. I. Circular No. 94. 



ADVANTAGES SECUEED 81 

where such furrows are three to four feet apart, 
between rows of corn or other cultivated plants, 
the amount of soil carried away may be enor- 
mous. 

The formation of deep gullies is often pre- 
vented by leaving narrow strips, where they 
naturally occur, in forest growth, or in some 
perennial grass, such as bluegrass or Bermuda 
grass. In places where winter cereals are 
grown, and where such winter cover-crops as 
vetch and crimson clover are adapted, an effect- 
ive means of conserving the soil is established in 
the system of farming. Old, washed-out gul- 
lies may often be inexpensively filled by placing 
obstructions in the ditch at intervals. Such ob- 
structions may consist of rocks, brush, or weeds, 
held by stakes driven into the ground. Old 
farms that seemed practically ruined have been 
fixed up by filling gullies by the use of a plough 
and scraper. Such treatment costs labour, and 
when such a farm is to be purchased or rented 
the cost necessary for such work should be care- 
fully calculated. 

The methods enumerated for dealing with soil- 
erosion problems are not subjects for specific 



82 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

farm-management investigation. It is neces- 
sary, however, for the manager of a farm to 
know practical methods for handling such prob- 
lems, that he may consider them as items of cost 
in maintaining proper soil-conditions. 

Injury by Wind.— In certain parts of the semi- 
arid country of the West there have developed, 
during a series of dry years, what are suitably 
called ^^ blown strips." The writer has in mind 
one in particular which developed during 1912- 
13, and almost ruined the best and most highly 
developed agricultural part of a county. Its 
extent was about forty miles long and seven 
miles wide. Buildings, fences, and young forest 
trees were buried beneath drifts of soil. Old 
stream-courses and gullies were filled up and 
changed to ridges. In fact, the topography of 
this whole area was materially changed in the 
course of two years. Most of the inhabitants 
were driven away, and for a time were finan- 
cially ruined. The area kept spreading and en- 
croached upon a thriving town. The business 
men and farmers of the community and the rail- 
road authorities co-operating with the State 
agricultural college, challenged these destruc- 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 83 

tive forces of nature, and began to establish 
means to control them. 

The lister, slu, implement used in that region 
for planting corn and forage-crops, proved to be 
adapted for the purpose. With this implement 
a trench twelve to sixteen inches deep may be 
made, in the bottom of which field-corn, Kaffir- 
corn, or other similar forage-grain may be 
planted. A chance rain will be likely to start 
these plants growing in such trenches. They 
are drought resisting plants, and when started 
will grow very fast. The trenches with ridges 
on each side and the forage plants, if they chance 
to grow, will check the loose dirt, which moves 
swiftly over the hardened surface in the stiff 
winds that frequently occur. The winds scatter 
the seed of native plants and weeds constantly. 
The soil held in place sufficiently by the trenches 
and the growing plants, enables the native vege- 
tation to get started. In a few months thou- 
sands of acres were recovered with native vege- 
tation, and as far as the eye could reach these 
furrows and rows of forage, about four rods 
apart, could be seen. In a few years such a 
blown strip will be repopulated, and it is hoped 



84 FARM MANAGEMENT 

tlie farmers then will have learned an important 
lesson in the management of dry-land soils. 

Control by Irrigation.— The irrigation of dry 
lands, and even irrigation for special crops in 
more humid climates, are problems of local in- 
terest to farmers. Irrigation has long been 
practised as a means of controlling the water- 
supply in the soil. Under most circumstances it 
is very exi^ensive, and the expenditure would 
not be justified except in cases where the prob- 
lem has been carefully considered. Millions of 
dollars have been lost in farm investments be- 
cause the location of an irrigation project had 
not been considered from the point of view of 
crops that could be profitably grown and mar- 
keted. A proposed scheme, considered simply 
from the standpoint of increased production, 
may look feasible, good, and interesting ; but if 
the stuff produced is in the wrong place to be 
disposed of, if the climatic factor has not been 
looked into, if irrigation develops injurious ef- 
fects in the soil (such as alkali deposits), the 
project is more than likely to end in disaster. 
Promoters of irrigation-schemes in their litera- 
ture do not throw light on the problem by relat- 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 85 

ing the history of failures as well as the history 
of successes. 

Other Means of Moisture-control. — The soil- 
mulch theory is widely known as a means of 
regulating and conserving soil-moisture. An- 
other theory is that shallow cultivation, by pre- 
venting the growth of weeds, which take mois- 
ture from the soil, indirectly regulates and con- 
serves moisture for the growing plants. Prob- 
ably cultivation conserves moisture both by pre- 
venting evaporation and also by preventing 
weed-growth, depending on soil and climate con- 
ditions at the time the cultivating is done. 

Experienced and intelligent farmers in a lo- 
cality know pretty definitely the amount of 
labour, power, and material that may advan- 
tageously be expended in maintaining the soil in 
proper condition. Such farmers can give in- 
telligent reasons for their local way of rolling, 
dragging, disking, and cultivating the soil. 
They will perform such operations only when 
and in such a manner as the conditions at the 
time require. A practical and intelligent 
farmer will not have decided on an absolute 
standard depth of ploughing for all conditions, a 



86 FARM MANAGEMENT 

definite number of times to cultivate his corn, or 
to roll the land. He performs these operations 
to accomplish certain definite results, and will 
not wisely do more work than is needed to ac- 
complish the results wanted. If he knows the 
cost in labour and power of each operation, be- 
sides knowing its purpose, he can calculate more 
intelligently the line of greatest advantage when 
required to meet a problem. 

Many writers and lecturers on farm-problems, 
and even some bulletins that presume to be 
scientifically authoritative, have wrongly ad- 
vised farmers that any method for handhng the 
soil, or of treating a crop which results in 
greater yield, is a method or treatment worth 
while for any farmer to follow. Also it is often 
taken as granted that some method or practice 
which has proved profitable to a particular 
farmer in a certain locality, or has been demon- 
strated to be profitable on an experimental farm, 
should be a profitable method or practice for all 
in a given locality to follow. This may be illus- 
trated by the following table, which summarises 
the work put on corn land by a farmer who 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 87 

thought he was economising by never using a 
plough on his farm : 

Estimated Estimated 

man — horse — 

days per acre days per acre 

Disk, 12 times 1.44 5.30 

Harrow, 2 times 10 .40 

Plant, 1 time 10 .20 

Harrow, 12 times 60 2.40 

Cultivate, 13 times 1.82 3.64 

Husk, 1 time 1.00 2.00 

Totals 5.06 14.00 

As a measure of his success this farmer states 
that during a dry year, when these operations 
were performed, his corn stayed green while 
that of his neighbours' who used the plough was 
'* burned'' and badly damaged by drought. 
There is a failure here to measure comparative 
results in actual yield or net returns for labour 
expended. This farmer expended about twice 
the labour the average farmer expends in that 
region, or at least $10 more per acre. A yield of 
25 to 30 bushels more than the yield obtained by 
the ordinary methods would have to be secured 
to justify the extra expense of labour, and it may 
be doubted if this was done on this farm. 

Soil fertility may be controlled by the use of 



88 FARM MANAGEMENT 

commercial fertiliser and lime, turning under 
green crops, by stock enterprises or by rotation 
of crops. 

Profit from Fertilising. — Eastern lands are not 
only as a rule low in natural fertility, but the till- 
able areas are scattered here and there in irregu- 
lar patches, making it difficult and often impos- 
sible to farm advantageously tracts of land suit- 
able in size and shape. Partly for these rea- 
sons, increased production per man can be se- 
cured more advantageously by increasing the 
yield per acre by means of some commercial 
fertiliser than by increasing the size of area 
farmed, or by the use of implements of larger 
capacity. The practise of putting lime on the 
soil is also common in this region. Lime for all 
practical purposes may be classed as one form 
of commercial fertiliser, since its presence in 
the soil is essential to the normal development of 
most important farm crops. 

In the previous chapter it was shown that one 
of the main advantages secured by liming the 
soil is that of getting vigorous stands of such 
legumes as red clover, alsyke clover, sweet 
clover, and alfalfa. These legumes store nitro- 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 89 

gen in the soil, and put the subsoil in good phy- 
sical condition for growing crops ; they also fur- 
nish vegetable matter for the soil from the roots 
and stems. It is well known, however, that 
many plants will thrive pretty well in sour soils, 
and that such soils may be made to yield more 
productively by other means than by liming. 
While corn makes larger yields as a result of 
liming the soil, largely no doubt on account of 
clover or other legumes benefited by lime, many 
instances are on record where yields on sour 
soils have been doubled by other means than 
liming. The results obtained by boys' corn- 
clubs on all sorts of soils are evidences of possi- 
bilities. Profitable farms are found on which 
soils giving an acid reaction make yields as high 
as fifty bushels of corn and thirty bushels of 
wheat during favourable years. 

Fertility Promoted by Mixed Farming. — The 
practise of a prosperous farmer in such circum- 
stances will illustrate how fertility may be con- 
trolled by a combination of farm-enterprises. 
All crops except wheat are fed to hogs and 
steers. On a 1000-acre farm about 300 steers 
and 500 to 600 hogs are fattened and sold each 



90 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

year. Figuring on the basis of the farm-value 
of the crops fed to stock, little if any profit 
comes from the stock directly, but stock-feeding, 
employed as a means of increasing production 
on the farm, pays the farmer, since by such 
means (which pays its way and a little more), 
the crop-production is increased above the aver- 
age. By such means the farmer does not get a 
much better price for his corn, but by increasing 
yields he decreases the cost of production per 
bushel, and thus gets increased profits. 

The test of any device or scheme for building 
up the soil, or for increasing production in any 
other way, must be tested on the basis of cost 
of production. Such problems are strictly 
farm-management problems; and unless the 
farmer can test the schemes and devices offered 
him, or can get the services of some one to do it 
for him, he runs great risk of financial loss. 

In some parts of the corn-belt, where the feed- 
ing of steers has been profitable, the fertility of 
the soil has been greatly increased without the 
use of commercial fertilisers. A common field- 
rotation is corn, corn, oats and clover, furnish- 
ing equal areas of oats and clover, and twice the 



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ADVANTAGES SECURED 91 

area of each of corn. On a 160-acre farm about 
fifty head of cattle may be fed. The manure 
from these, and from the several horses kept, 
will allow about forty acres to be covered each 
year by means of the manure spreader. This, 
with the clover turned under, has greatly in- 
creased fertility in many sections. 

A study of the agriculture of Japan and 
China reveals the fact that in these countries, 
where the people have been forced to a highly 
developed system of intensive agriculture, soil 
fertility has been maintained for many hundreds 
of years without the use of any chemical ferti- 
liser, by applying to the soil every decomposable 
substance within reach — weeds, leaves, straw, 
and animal and human excrement. Isolated in- 
stances showing the same possibility in our own 
country have been discovered, and some of them 
have been put on record.^ 

Through the use of lime and commercial fer- 
tilisers thousands of farmers in the eastern half 
of the United States have been able to live and 
prosper on farms which twenty-five to thirty 
years ago were unable to support families prop- 

1 See Farmers' Bulletin 519. 



92 FAK.M MANAGEMENT 

erly. Under the conditions prevailing here the 
most economical means of building up and main- 
taining the fertihty on farms is to use lime and 
fertilisers ; but the most satisfactory and perma- 
nent results from the use of these can be ob- 
tained only as vegetable matter or humus is con- 
stantly supplied in the soil. On most eastern 
farms this important ingredient can be supplied 
most economically by turning under crops grown 
for the purpose, or by pasturing off crops with 
stock. This leaves the manure of animals 
widely distributed on the fields, and much of the 
vegetable matter is tramped down and into the 
soil. The crops most commonly used for turn- 
ing under and pasturing off are rye and cow- 
peas — two crops especially adapted to *'sour*' 
soils. Crimson clover and hairy vetch are 
adapted to the same purpose on sandy soils, 
wherever moisture is sufficient, and where the 
surface is protected by snow in winter. 

Crops Turned Under. — Turning under crops 
adds a great deal to the expense of maintaining 
fertility. If the seed, labour, and rental charges 
are considered on the basis of a year's rent, the 
cost would range between $5 and $12 per acre. 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 93 

In the more southern climates the above-men- 
tioned crops may be grown as winter covier- 
crops, or catch-crops, during the growing season, 
and in connection with other tillage operations 
the expense is greatly lessened. These are 
problems of farm-organisation to be considered 
in another chapter. 

The cost of maintaining soil-fertility by the 
use of lime, fertiliser and crops turned under 
will not be far from $5 to $6 per acre per 
year at standard prices for materials and labour. 
On farms the organisation of which will allow 
the labour to be done at times when it cannot be 
employed in productive work, the cost may be 
considerably lowered. Some of the best agri- 
cultural lands, on which no lime or commercial 
fertiliser is needed, may be rented for $5 to $8 
an acre. Hence, unless the yields on specially 
treated lands were equal to or above those ob- 
tained in naturally fertile areas, or unless much 
higher average prices may be obtained for 
products, the value of the land would need to 
be very low in order to allow profitable general 
farming to be carried on. The raising of 
special fruit and truck crops would of course 



94 FARM MANAGEMENT 

have to be considered on an entirely different 
basis. 

Spraying. — One of the most striking illustra- 
tions of the value of the scientific investigation 
of agricultural problems, and of putting into the 
hands of farmers practical means of control, is 
that of spraying for fungus diseases and insect 
pests of trees. Scientific investigators have 
not only worked on the problems of how to ac- 
complish results, but on the economic problem 
also, by discovering materials and devising 
methods that make the means of control prac- 
tical and profitable. The control of hog cholera 
by means of inoculation is another remarkable 
illustration of the solution of a serious and im- 
portant farm problem. 

All such means of control require the time of 
men and a team or teams; and special equip- 
ment is also necessary, so the farmer should 
estimate carefully the cost of such means before 
applying them under his particular conditions. 
If the farmer had to employ expert services at 
high prices in treating his crops by spraying, or 
if the treating of hogs properly with serum could 
be done only by the skilled veterinarian, the 



ADVANTAGES SECURED 95 

costs would in most cases be too high relative to 
prices of products. On the other hand, as the 
methods for such treatment can be handled 
skilfully by farmers themselves, the means may 
be economically justified. 

The cost of spraying peach-trees, for instance, 
will vary from five to ten cents per tree per year 
during the bearing stage. The results in yield 
and quality, however, are large for the cost of 
treatment. If the yield is sufficiently increased, 
the cost of production may be covered. If the 
quality is improved the price is higher. 

Many other illustrations might be given show- 
ing the progress in scientific agriculture through 
the development of means of control which many 
farmers have found practical and economically 
useful. 

Plant-breeding. — In connection with problems 
of control may be mentioned the wonderful 
progress made in securing advantages through 
plant-breeding. Many crops rapidly adapt 
themselves to conditions of climate and soil. 
By means of controlling the breeding processes, 
certain desired characteristics may be empha- 
sised and perpetuated in both plants and ani- 



96 FARM MANAGEMENT 

mals. Not farther back than 1875 the ordinary 
varieties of dent field-corn would not mature in 
northwestern Iowa. In South Dakota, as late as 
1890, only the flint varieties were seen on the few 
fields growing it. Not until about 1887 did red 
clover prove a valuable crop in northwestern 
Iowa and in Minnesota, probably because of lack 
of inoculation in the soil. Now these districts 
are included in the great corn-belt of the North- 
central States. 

West of the Missouri river, alfalfa will grow 
when moisture is available, without special coax- 
ing. In the East, where ^'sour" soils prevail, 
and inoculation is lacking, the growing of alfalfa 
involves technical skill. 

It is the prevailing idea of those who have 
been educated to believe that the measure of 
good farming is the product per acre derived 
from the soil, that the American farmer is much 
behind the modern European farmer in the skil- 
ful utilisation of his resources. The truth is 
that as our country is very extensive in area, and 
all stages of agricultural development are found 
within our borders, any valid comparison must 
be made with similar conditions in view. In 



ADVANTAGES SECUEED 97 

large areas of our country, especially in isolated 
mountain regions, thickly populated, the most 
primitive and the rudest methods are used. In 
the most fertile and extensive agricultural sec- 
tions of our country the farmers have developed 
along lines of extensive agriculture where la- 
bour-saving devices have supplanted hand la- 
bour to a large extent. There may be found 
also in the United States localities where the 
most intensive type of agriculture is being car- 
ried on, and where the methods applied are 
highly technical and in accordance with the 
latest achievements of agricultural science. 

The typical American farmer is not satisfied 
with day-wages. He expects a farm-income 
equal to that of the retail grocer, the banker, the 
doctor, or the lawyer. To maintain such in- 
comes the farmer must develop skill as a busi- 
ness-man, as well as develop technical skill along 
his own lines. 



CHAPTER V 
FAEM CROP PROBLEMS 

An extremely important problem of the 
farmer is that of employing his time profitably ; 
and in order to do this he should consider such 
crops only as can be economically grown. In 
the succeeding chapter enterprises in live stock 
will be discussed from the same standpoint. 
Whatever enterprises the farmer undertakes 
should be so related to his farm-organisation 
that an intelligent reason can be given for select- 
ing them. 

Crops on the farm require definite operations 
to be performed at certain seasons of the year in 
order to promote their growth and maturity and 
to harvest and market them. Such operations 
require labour, power, machinery and materials. 
In many cases manufacturing processes are em- 
ployed on the farm, such as canning, making 
butter, curing meats. These are in harmony 

93 



FARM CROP PROBLEMS 99 

with good management when the time or season 
spent in doing them could not be more profitably 
employed. As a rule, crop and livestock enter- 
prises should not be selected on the basis of the 
temporary profitableness of the individual crop, 
but rather on the basis of a system that has 
proved successful in the locality, or elsewhere 
in a similar environment. Those enterprises 
that have stood the test of conditions in a local- 
ity for a long series of years may be safely de- 
pended upon and should form the basis of farm- 
organisation in that locality. 

Factors of Labor and Time. — The crop-specialist 
or livestock-specialist makes some single enter- 
prise the thing of primary importance, and tells 
how to handle it in a way to produce maximum 
quantity or suitable quality. This is funda- 
mentally important, of course; but the farm- 
manager is concerned with such means primarily 
from the standpoint of cost. The most im- 
portant cost-factor in most crop-enterprises is 
labour, hence it is important to know the sea- 
sons within which the various operations must 
be done and the amount of work required. It 
is clear then that the labour-requirements on a 



100 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

farm should be measured in such a way as to 
enable the farmer to estimate intelligently the 
advantages to accrue, considering the most 
profitable use of the available time. 

In certain regions the net income per acre on 
tobacco is much larger than that on wheat, corn 
or clover. Why should not the farmer raise this 
crop alone? The main reason is that the 
labour-requirement of the crop is such that the 
farmer can not put in his time continuously. If 
this crop is the most profitable one for his lo- 
cality, he will put in such time as is available 
for it; the time that is not available he will 
wisely employ on some other crop, which may 
not give as high returns per acre as does the 
tobacco, but which will enable him to employ 
certain periods more advantageously than 
could be done in any other way. He may find 
also that the cultivation of a tobacco-crop, in 
addition to making the time during certain sea- 
sons most valuable, puts the land in good phy- 
sical condition for some crop that may succeed 
it. Wheat, for instance, may make five to eight 
bushels more per acre after tobacco than after 
corn. This fact may further increase the util- 



FARM CROP PROBLEMS 101 

ity of tobacco as a crop, and make corn rela- 
tively of less value in the cropping-system. 
Still, corn may be a profitable crop to grow in 
such a region on account of its fitting into the 
system. 

It is profitable under certain conditions to 
confine farming operations to a single crop, thus 
leaving a large part of the time available for 
crop growing unused. Thus in some localities 
it has been profitable to spend time almost en- 
tirely on wheat ; elsewhere cotton may be grown 
as the only money-crop. In general profits may 
be increased by intelligently considering how to 
make use of waste time. 

Long and Short Seasons. — In the latitude of 
Iowa the seasons in which the various required 
operations may be done are short, as compared 
with similar operating seasons in southwestern 
Kentucky or northwestern Tennessee. Here 
ploughing may be done at favourable times dur- 
ing the entire fall and winter months, and the 
planting season may continue from about March 
15 to the end of June. On the other hand, in 
central Iowa, field-work during December and 
the three first months of the year is not per- 



102 FARM MANAGEMENT 

mitted. The planting-period of corn is limited 
to about fifteen days in May. The growing- 
period of this crop in this latitude is limited to 
about 120 days, while corn-growers in Kentucky 
and Tennessee may count on about 190 days in 
which to mature a crop. There the farmer often 
puts out an early crop and a late crop, planting 
tobacco between the two seasons, and thus has 
a better chance to benefit by rains at critical 
times during July and August. The summers 
in those States are normally dry and hot, so 
that this crop runs a greater risk of being cut 
short on this account than on any other. This 
is also true of the semi-arid regions of the 
West. In the northern corn-belt moisture de- 
ficiency, while to a certain extent a menace, does 
not as a rule endanger this crop. In the north 
the seasons for doing more than the preparative 
and planting operations are short as compared 
with similar seasons in the more southern 
climate. This is doubtless one of the reasons 
why farmers in the northern corn-belt have been 
quick to take advantage of the use of labour-sav- 
ing farm-machinery. Here four- and six-horse 
teams, with wide-cut implements, do the work on 



FARM CROP PROBLEMS 103 

many farms of only 160 to 220 acres. The ele- 
vator which unloads a load of grain in ten min- 
utes, without manual labour, saves the time and 
strength of the corn-husker so that he is able 
easily to crib 80 to 100 bushels per day, whereas 
formerly he did but 50 to 75 bushels per day. 
In these regions crops grow more rapidly dur- 
ing the growing season than in more southern 
and dryer summer climates. Consequently, to 
accomplish the work required by the same area 
of crop, it must be done more rapidly. For this 
reason there are wide gaps between the oper- 
ating seasons, in which no productive work may 
be done on the crops ; and where such conditions 
prevail diversification in a way to give continu- 
ous work, and to distribute it as evenly as pos- 
sible, becomes an important matter. Diversifi- 
cation is of special importance in such a region 
when land-values become high. Some basic ro- 
tation in managing the crop-areas is also spe- 
cially important where the growing-season is 
short. Hence on the better-organised farms 
there we find fields of approximately equal size, 
and yielding such a combination of crops as corn 
first year, corn second year, then oats and clover. 



104 FARM MANAGEMENT 

Tobacco as a Time-saving Crop. — Tobacco is a 
crop that utilises time advantageously and well 
illustrates adaptability to soil, climatic and la- 
bour conditions. It furnishes almost continuous 
work throughout the year, a fact of great eco- 
nomic significance where tobacco is a major crop- 
enterprise. It requires not only field-work on 
the farm, but work indoors, such as firing, bulk- 
ing, stripping, and grading. However, the time 
when this work may be done, even indoors, 
is limited by the weather. Tobacco must be 
handled when moisture-conditions are right. 
Even marketing cannot be done during cold, dry, 
crisp days. The growing and handling tobacco 
in a way to make it of high marketable value re- 
quires undoubtedly as great skill as any known 
general farm-crop. In order to handle it prop- 
erly without costly instruments to determine 
leaf -quality, moisture-content, etc., the workman 
must be raised in the business. The negro la- 
bourers who do most of this work in the South 
become very skilful in the intricate details of to- 
bacco-handling. 

Tobacco resists a drought remarkably well. 
The plant may be set out the latter part of May 
or the first weeks of June, when the season hap- 



FARM CROP PROBLEMS 105 

pens to be propitious. Even though rain of any 
importance does not occur for a month or six 
weeks the plant will remain almost dormant un- 
til rain comes, when it will shoot forward 
rapidly; and, if good rains occur, by the latter 
part of July or the first part of August there 
will be a fair chance for a normal crop. The 
quality under such conditions will suffer, but the 
farmer is virtually sure to be paid for his labour. 
Another important fact relative to the to- 
bacco-crop is that it is peculiarly sensitive to the 
quality of the soil and to climatic conditions. 
These conditions seem to have been a factor in 
developing certain qualities which are esteemed 
by users. The flavour created by the firing 
process becomes an established quality, and this 
influences the market demand. Thus the dark- 
tobacco district in Kentucky and Tennessee has 
practically a monopoly on this quality of to- 
bacco. Attempts to share this market in other 
localities, having different climatic and soil con- 
ditions, have very generally failed. The Burley 
varieties, which hold a market so successfully in 
the bluegrass region of Kentucky, and along the 
Ohio River into West Virginia, illustrate how a 



106 FARM MANAGEMENT 

crop may become established in such a way as to 
dominate a market. The Burley varieties have 
not been marketable when grown in the dark-to- 
bacco district, although the price for this va- 
riety averages higher than does the price of the 
dark tobacco. 

These physical facts relative to the tobacco- 
crop help to explain its dominance in a section 
that has played so important a part in the eco- 
nomic and political development of the United 
States. Notwithstanding the fact that other 
enterprises are competing successfully in the 
South-central States, it is still the poor man's 
crop, because there are fewer chances of failure 
in growing it than any other, and because it 
gives a farmer productive work at home with his 
family during almost the entire year. Simil- 
arly, the farmer who has organised a larger 
business clings to tobacco because the growing 
of this crop is of fundamental importance rela- 
tive to the employment of labour on the farm. 

As has been pointed out, the negro labourer 
brought up in that country knows the art of 
growing and handling tobacco. He commands 
good wages as day-labourer or as cropper, be- 



FAKM CROP PEOBLEMS 107 

sides being provided with a cottage to live in, 
fuel, a garden for his family, sometimes a cow to 
milk, and other perquisites. Such opportuni- 
ties to secure a living for a family, and to rise 
above the station of the ordinary farm-labourer 
makes available a supply of labour for general 
farm-work and housev/ork. Cotton is a crop 
that will employ profitably the labour of men, 
women and children, but not so continuously 
throughout the year as does tobacco. 

Tobacco and cotton have market-advantages 
that no other crop-enterprises of equal magni- 
tude in the country have. When properly 
grown and prepared for the market, they have 
the peculiar advantage that they are readily 
taken as collateral by banks and loan-agencies 
for the advancement of money. This advan- 
tage, however, has not proved successful in pro- 
moting the general economic welfare of finan- 
cially weak citizens in the South. 

It has not been customary to consider crop- 
problems from the standpoint just outlined. 
How to prepare the soil, how to fertilise, what 
varieties to grow, when to plant, whether to sell 
the crop directly, or to feed it, have been the 



108 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

important problems. When the farmer's think- 
ing is directed also to the principles which have 
been presented in this chapter, he should be able 
to make farming more profitable. 

A farmer who grows tobacco or cotton has as 
a rule been fairly certain of wages for himself 
and children, and when he is especially hard up, 
or when unforeseen disaster occurs, such as sick- 
ness, crop-failure, etc., he can get money ad- 
vanced on a future crop. The farmer who de- 
pends on corn, wheat, hay and livestock must 
as a rule, carry his own risks. He has less 
chance of making himself a debtor to capital, and 
for many reasons this condition is an advan- 
tage. Under proper business organisation the 
availability of a crop for credit should be an 
advantage. Many other crops have dominated 
the agriculture of a region in a greater or less 
degree. Tobacco and cotton are discussed in so 
much detail because they have been exception- 
ally important in this respect. 

Considerations of Time. — The agronomist may 
often be puzzled when the farmer is slow, or re- 
fuses to grow and handle crops according to 
methods that obviously will produce larger 



FARM CROP PROBLEMS 109 

yields or better quality. The business-man who 
has given money for a prize-fund to stimulate 
larger production through corn-clubs, often ac- 
cuses the farmer of stupidity because he does 
not accept the methods which the boys have 
demonstrated to be so efficient in producing 
yields. A study enabling us to measure the 
time actually available for field-work, and the 
utilisation of this time by a system of crops, will 
often explain the farmer ^s attitude toward his 
instructors. In growing several crops on a 
farm and handling two or more stock-enter- 
prises which also require time, the farmer must 
consider the time spent on the system as a whole. 
He may think it wise to cut out a crop or stock- 
enterprise which may allow more work to be put 
on other crops. He would no doubt gladly do 
this if it could be clearly demonstrated that his 
labour-income could thereby be increased. In- 
stead, however, he might conclude that it was 
wise to spend this time in cultivating more land. 
Knowing the standard labour-requirements of 
the several crops adapted to his region, and the 
standard available time he can spend in field- 
work as determined by his soil and climate, he 



110 FARM MANAGEMENT 

can more intelligently decide on methods than 
can a stranger; and the expert on any special 
agricultural subject should thus measure the 
economic value to the farm of his ^* discovery," 
or of his method. The farmer, on the other 
hand, may easily undervalue the work of the 
scientific investigator on special agricultural 
subjects. Also, there is danger that the student 
who studies farming from the point of view of 
management may grow into the habit of over- 
looking the fundamental importance of the 
scientific investigation of special problems re- 
lating to soil, crops and other enterprises on the 
farm. Such investigations, resulting in knowl- 
edge which puts into the hands of the farmer 
more efficient means of control, are the basis of 
progress in agriculture. 

The spraying of various plants with poisonous 
materials, the kinds and the amounts of ferti- 
lisers for improving the soil, and the quality of 
the products, new methods of cultivating and 
handling crops — all have become a part of the 
established practise of the farmer, and such 
scientific innovations have increased the 
farmer's income. These new practises increase 









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FARM CROP PROBLEMS 111 

the amount of labour put upon a crop, and may 
also affect the distribution of such labour. As 
has been noted, each locality according to lati- 
tude, altitude and soil-conditions, demands a dif- 
ferent amount of labour as well as a different 
distribution on the same crop, such as corn, 
wheat or tobacco. In order then to get at the 
standard labour-requirement of each crop, and 
the distribution of the labour put upon them for 
any typical locality, it is necessary to make a 
survey of such locality, taking such rec- 
ords as are necessary to establish the facts 
wanted. 

Seasonal Distribution of Labour. — Figure 5 is a 

chart showing the seasonal distribution of 
labour on crops grown in the altitude and lati- 
tude of Nashville, Tennessee. 

Heavy lines show limits of season as deter- 
mined by the average experience on the farms 
surveyed; the dotted lines indicate variations 
of the season due to variations in weather, to 
the notion of the individual as to when the oper- 
ations ought to be done, or to the cropping- 
system adopted by the farmer. Some opera- 
tions on crops are confined to very short seasons. 



112 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

and the beginning and ending of the season does 
not vary much from year to year. These oper- 
ations are usually connected with the maturing 
period of crops. Wheat, for instance, is usually 
ripe by June 12 in the latitude of southern Ken- 
tucky, and in about ten days all wheat is cut. 
Barley is cut ten days previous, and oats follow 
wheat. These operations can not be put off in 
this section since the wheat will not stand up. 
In more arid regions, wheat develops a stiff 
straw, allowing a longer period of harvesting. 
Corn and tobacco, and other inter-tilled crops, 
must be cultivated frequently during the first 
part of this growing-period, in order to pre- 
vent the injurious effect of weeds and to keep 
the soil in proper condition for the best develop- 
ment of the plant. Tobacco, like wheat, must be 
harvested when ripe. When corn is cut and put 
in shock it too must receive attention at the 
proper time. Husking or pulling the ears, how- 
ever, may be done in a longer season, and these 
operations are often put off when necessary 
work is crowding. 

The number of operations required on a given 
crop varies with individual farmers, who base 



FARM CROP PROBLEMS 113 

their judgment on the soil, weather-conditions, 
previous crops and succeeding crops. Thus a 
wheat crop following corn or tobacco usually re- 
ceives about three operations before cutting, 
while in the same region, when summer fallow- 
ing is done, ^ve or six operations may produce 
profitable results. Often a crop of wheat may 
be drilled into a clean tobacco-field without any 
previous preparation. 

The amount of time a man and team may put 
on a crop does not indicate what he may accom- 
plish. Some men with a team will accomplish 
more than others. It depends on the man, and 
the team, and the soil. Heavy teams, will, of 
course, accomplish more than light ones. An 
energetic man, and one who is alert to take ad- 
vantage of favourable weather and soil-condi- 
tions, will accomplish more than will the care- 
less, indifferent man. It is thus evident that 
the number of operations on a given crop will 
vary on farms in the same locality, and will vary 
from year to year on the same farm. Also, the 
conditions of the soil, the energy of the men em- 
ployed, the shape of the fields, and many other 
facts of more or less importance influence the 



114 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



amount of time used in producing crops ; but it 
is important to have standards for measuring 
the labour costs of various crops. 

Labour and Power Units.— A day spent in per- 
forming some farm operation may be called a 
labour unit. A day's use of a horse or equiva- 
lent may be called a power unit. If the labour 
or power is applied directly on some enterprise, 
such as a corn-crop, or on dairy cows, the units 
may be termed productive labour units and pro- 
ductive power units. 

TABLE 2 

SHOWING FARM OPERATIONS, LABOR AND POWER 
UNITS ON A POTATO CROP 



Operations 


'Number 


Labour units 
per acre 


, Power units 
per acre 


Manure 

Break 

Re-break 


1 
1 
1 
2 

1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
3 
3 
1 
1 


1.00 
0.40 
0.40 
0.33 
0.11 
0.11 
0.07 
1.00 
0.25 
0.16 
0.11 
0.11 
0.54 
0.07 
2.20 
.83 

69 


2.00 
1.20 
1.20 


Disc 


1.00 


Harrow 

Drasr 


0.22 
0.22 


"o 

Roll 

Cut seed 


0.14 
0.00 


Plant 

Split middles 

Cross harrow 

Drac 


0.50 
0.33 
0.22 
0.22 


Cultivate 

Spray 

Dig 


1.08 
0.07 
1.00 


Market 3.4 mi 

Totals per acre .... 


1.66 
11.06 



FAEM CROP PROBLEMS 



115 



Table 2 gives the standard, productive labour and power 
units required on a potato-crop in the lower Ohio Valley. 
Here the cost of a labour unit is about $1.25, which is the 
same thing as saying $1.25 per day. Tlie cost of a power 
unit is the same as the cost of a mule or horse per day, in. 
this region $1.00 per day. Thus the total labour-cost of the 
crop may be readily calculated. In this case it is about 
$20.00 per acre. The other costs are standard, which, added 
to the charges for labour and power, give the total cost of the 
crop. 

TABLE 3 

COST IN LABOUR UNITS AND POWER UNITS APPLIED 

TO SEVERAL STANDARD CROPS IN 

DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 



Crop 


Locality 


Labour units 
per acre 


Power units 
per acre 


Corn 

Winter wheat . . . 

Tobacco 

Market onions. . . 

Onion sets 

Sweet potatoes . . 

Cotton ' 

Oats 

Corn 

Cowpea hay 

Corn 

Oats 

Clover 


Kentucky 
« 
(( 
it 
t( 
(t 

Ga. and S. Car. 

« 

Iowa 
(( 

(( 


4.00 

1.00 

35.00 

22.00 

36.00 

15.00 

11.18 

1.75 

4.10 

1.75 

2.60 

1.50 

1.20 


4.50 

2.00 

14.00 

14.00 

14.00 

8.00 

5.00 

2.29 

3.02 

1.61 

6.00 

2.22 

1 10 







Note. — These figures are based on a few studies made in spe- 
cific localities and are not to be taken as averages or as 
applying to all sections. The table is given simply as an 
illustration of the value and significance of such data. They 
should be had from all typical locations in the United States. 

It should be of practical value to the farmer to know that 
in Kentucky tobacco takes about five times as many labour 
units as corn, and about twice as many power units; and that 
the wheat-crop requires about one-fifth as much work as corn. 



116 FARM MANAGEMENT 

When coilsidering the problem of substituting one crop for 
another, the farmer may have a basis for comparing the 
amount of labour required by each crop. 

Relation of Crops to Markets. — An important 
fact to take into consideration relative to crop- 
enterprises is the reliability and stability of 
their market- value. The farmer does not want 
to spend his time on products that he cannot 
market at a fair price. A presentation of the 
factors which in any particular locality makes 
the market-value of a crop reliable would lead 
to a discussion of railroad facilities, warehouses, 
elevators, cold-storage plants, marketing, 
organisation, crop advertising, etc. These are 
problems of rural economics. The farmer, 
however, should know and appreciate the impor- 
tance of these factors when selecting a new crop- 
enterprise. Many localities that have natural 
advantages for certain crops do not have these 
economic advantages, or rather other enter- 
prises may have greater advantages, thus elimi- 
nating such an enterprise by competition. The 
trucking and fruit industries are restricted to 
certain quite definite localities, because at the 
present time these have superior economic ad- 



FAKM CROP PROBLEMS 117 

vantages. Northern Iowa and southern Minne- 
sota could grow large yields per acre of Duchess 
or Wealthy apples of the finest quality, but in 
that region other crops are handled to much bet- 
ter advantage. Tomatoes, strawberries, and 
peaches are grown profitably in particular lo- 
calities, not because of any particular natural 
advantages, but because in these places facilities 
have been developed for handling and market- 
ing such crops. The raising of sugar-beets is 
profitable only where facilities for handling the 
crop have been established. In almost all cases, 
the owners of sugar-beet factories finance the 
crop, furnishing the seed and contracting for 
the crop from the farmer at a stipulated price. 
A staple crop is one which has a long and 
well established market. The facilities for 
handling such crops and distributing them after 
they reach a shipping-point are most thoroughly 
organised and established in the commercial sys- 
tem of the world. The crops that fall into this 
class are those which may be held in storage 
without loss in quality, and which may be 
shipped to any part of the world conveniently. 
Cotton, corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, are well- 



118 FARM MANAGEMENT 

known staples. In marketing these crops there 
has as yet been developed but little formal 
organisation in the United States. It must be 
remembered, however, that the crops that are 
staple in the world of commerce are not neces- 
sarily grown and handled with profit anywhere 
soil and climate may be favourable. The im- 
portance of the factor of transportation has al- 
ready been shown. Even though the facilities 
for handling the crop may be easily provided on 
the farm, other fundamental economic factors 
may over-balance them. Railroad transporta- 
tion-rates, for instance, are adjusted largely 
on the basis of established industries. This 
tends to increase the localisation of certain 
crops. Unless crops are grown in a locality in 
sufficient amount, there would be no inducement 
to expend capital in building shipping-facilities 
at railroad shipping-points near such localities. 
The most that could be expected in the way of 
providing advantages would be that cars would 
be provided for shipping in carload-lots. In 
doing this the farmer would need to consign his 
produce to a commission-house in a market-cen- 
tre, or go with the car and attempt to sell it in- 



FAKM CROP PEOBLEMS 119 

dependently. These duties require skill ac- 
quired by experience, and the average farmer 
would not be justified in attempting to acquire 
it in this way. The plain fact is that to dispose 
profitably of the most staple of crops requires 
well-organised local trading-facilities, such as 
warehouses, elevators or other storage-plants, 
banks and standard shipping-rates. Nor can 
many crops be efficiently marketed until such 
crops have acquired a reputation which is 
identified with the locality. 

These facts explain why it is that in years of 
abnormally large production of any crop some 
localities will maintain a fair price for the prod- 
uct, while in others the price falls much below 
the cost of production. Throughout the South, 
northern potatoes have for many years enjoyed 
a reputation for good quality as compared with 
the average locally grown potato; yet many of 
the higher lands in the South may produce 
equally good potatoes. It may not be profit- 
able, however, for one or even a few farmers to 
grow large quantities of this crop, even in the 
most naturally favourable localities, until con- 
sumers are convinced that the quality is to be re- 



120 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

lied upon. Such crops as corn, wheat, hay, cot- 
ton, tobacco, and potatoes, have maintained for 
many years a fairly stable and reliable price. 
With rare exceptions when a farmer has been 
able to grow and put on the market conveniently 
any of these crops, he was practically sure of 
getting paid for the capital invested and for his 
labour. One advantage of these crops to the 
farmer is that they may be held for a year, at 
least, without serious loss. If the quality is 
good, he is practically sure of a fair price any 
time of the year. 

In farming, any permanent net increase in 
excess of average wages will tend as a rule, to 
become capitalised, and thus included in rent; 
that is, if a farmer finds that his soil and situa- 
tion have special advantages, if special trade 
facilities have been developed, or if the place has 
a good reputation, he naturally and rightly con- 
siders these as elements in farm-value, and 
should thus expect to earn additional rent to 
represent the cost of these advantages. Taking 
into account this tendency to capitalise profits, 
and the fact that many are enabled to keep on 
farming at a loss owing to the family living pro- 



FAKM CEOP PEOBLEMS 121 

cured from the farm,^ it will be found that the 
average price over a series of years of nearly 
all crops will about coincide with the cost of 
production. If production increases to such an 
extent as to lower the price below the cost of 
production, the acreage will decrease until the 
production is brought down to a point where 
this relation will become more nearly normal. 

It is to the advantage of the farmer as well as 
to the trader to understand these fundamental 
economic principles. 

For instance the yield of corn coincides with 
the rainfall during the critical period of its 
growth. Hence the weather at that time affects 
its price. When the price is low on account of 
an abnormally high production fewer acres of 
the crop are planted the succeeding year. In 
the case of most staple crops grown in the 
United States the weather is indirectly fun- 
damental in regulating prices. The reports of 
crop production published by the U. S. gov- 
ernment and by the States show the influence 
of prices on production of the staple crops. 
Everybody who watches the markets of staple 

1 See U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bulletin 635— V^Tiat the Farm 
Contributes Directly to the Farmer's Living. 



122 FARM MANAGEMENT 

crops reported in the daily papers must notice 
how potently weather-conditions react on the 
mind of the speculators who set the prices of 
these products for some months in the future. 
On each crop the prices vary to some extent 
during the year. If one takes the average of 
these variations for a series of years there will 
appear what may be termed a normal variation. 
These variations are easily interpreted by those 
who are thoroughly familiar with conditions 
that effect prices. In the case of wheat the 
price rules the highest before the new harvest. 
Wheat put on the market at that time has been 
subjected to considerable shrinkage, and mills 
which want wheat to grind for flour can afford 
to pay higher prices for the old wheat. Other 
factors no doubt combine also to affect the price 
at this time. 



CHAPTER VI 
PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 

On most farms livestock enterprises are as 
important as crops. 

Where markets for field-crops are not easily 
accessible, but where pasture grasses and for- 
age-crops do well, stock may be virtually the only 
direct source of income. In many parts of the 
corn-belt nearly all the corn-crop is fed to cattle. 
In such cases it may be said that livestock fur- 
nishes the most practical and profitable means 
of marketing crops. The fact that the trans- 
portation of animals is a relatively unimportant 
item in their cost makes it possible to breed and 
grow young animals in one place and distribute 
them to others for further development. Thus 
cattle are reared on cheap grazing land until two 
or three years old, when they are transported 
to another place and grazed a short time, after 
which they are fed on grain and marketed as 
beef-cattle. 

123 



124 FARM MANAGEMENT 

For many years in parts of Virginia, West 
Virginia and North Carolina, cattle have been 
grazed on bluegrass mountain-pastures and win- 
tered on farms in the valleys nearby. Formerly 
they were often driven long distances to where 
hay could be produced cheaply. The hay was 
put up in small round stacks, from which in 
the winter it was hauled and scattered over the 
meadows for the stock to eat. In the spring the 
cattle were driven back to the bluegrass pas- 
tures, and in the fall sold to feeders or as fat 
cattle on the market. In this manner of feed- 
ing, the hay meadows were formerly kept in a 
highly productive state for many years. 

This migration of livestock in response to the 
physical and economic situation in the locality 
is an important and signiiScant fact in farming. 
Stock-cattle raised on mountain pastures, and 
on the cheaper lands in the West, still furnish 
most of the cattle which are fed in the corn-belt, 
and sold in the great stock-markets. Young 
mules are found on the bluegrass farms of Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. When old 
enough, they are distributed to all parts of the 
country for work on farms, in mines, and so on. 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 125 

In the case of such animals as hogs and sheep, 
the season of development for market is short. 
Lambs are sold profitably at four to six months 
of age. Hogs mature for the market in six to 
twelve months. For this reason these animals 
less commonly migrate in the process of develop- 
ment for the market. 

Migration of Cattle.— To illustrate how stock- 
cattle may move about the country until their 
final marketing the events on a grazing farm 
on top of the Allegheny Mountains may be de- 
scribed. This farm includes 5,000 acres, di- 
vided into 500-acre fields, each field carrying 
about 100 thousand-pound animals from May 
till October, and a few horses and sheep in the 
winter. One year several car-loads of steers 
were shipped in the fall from Amarillo, Texas. 
These steers probably weighed about 700 pounds 
each, and at that time sold in Texas for about 
$30 per head. The transportation and board to 
the West Virginia grazing farm made the cost 
there about $36. After a few weeks grazing 
they were driven to valley farms where, during 
the winter, they lived mostly on corn-stover, 
straw, and possibly a little hay and corn during 



126 FARM MANAGEMENT 

the late winter months. The charge for this 
feeding was about $1.50 per month a head for 
about five months, making about $7.25 for the 
winter ^s board. About May 1 they went back 
to the bluegrass pastures where they grazed un- 
til about October 1. This grazing land had a 
market value of about $50 per acre, so that it 
should yield the owner a rent of at least $2.50 
per acre a year. About four acres of this land 
would carry one animal a year, so that the rent- 
charge for grazing one of these steers was about 
$10. Two men handled the cattle on this large 
grazing farm, and the estimated cost of labour, 
salt, depreciation, etc., was about $4 per head. 
These cattle thus left this farm for the feeding- 
pens in central Ohio, or for the Pittsburgh or 
Baltimore market, having cost about $57.25, and 
weighing 1000 to 1100 pounds. Under present 
conditions similar cattle handled in this manner 
would leave the farm costing about $70 per head. 
Decline of the Industry.— In the United States 
most of the stock-cattle have been reared on the 
great plains. As farms have developed in that 
region, the grazing areas have been pushed far- 
ther west, on less productive land, and into 



PKOBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 127 

Mexico, where stock-raising is hazardous on ac- 
count of political conditions. Because of this 
limitation of the grazing area, the number of 
cattle has declined in the United States, so that 
in 1914 the number was about the same as in 
1892. 

This condition has given rise to a great deal 
of concern. Farmers are being urged to raise 
more young stock on the farms. In the South- 
ern States, where the livestock industry has not 
prospered, mainly on account of climatic condi- 
tions, efforts are being made to stimulate its de- 
velopment. 

Livestock production may be increased in sev- 
eral ways. A situation making its products 
high and feed relatively cheap would increase 
production. The cheap growing of pasture- 
grasses and forage-plants on lands now waste, 
or the discovery of better means of utilising cer- 
tain farm-crops that now have only a limited 
market, would stimulate production. One 
thing is absolutely certain, and that is that the 
farmer will not increase the livestock on his 
farm unless he is convinced there is more profit 
in it than in raising and marketing crops. 



128 FARM MANAGEMENT 

From the farm-management point of view the 
feeding of livestock on a farm is an important 
factor as a means of increasing or maintaining 
soil-fertihty. Farms, however, may easily be 
overstocked, so that the quality of the stock 
raised or fed suffers. Often pastures on farms 
are eaten down too closely, and everything in the 
nature of forage is so cleaned up that little re- 
mains to go back into the soil as vegetable mat- 
ter — an ingredient as necessary for the produc- 
tiveness of most soils as are the mineral in- 
gredients. The marked increase in the produc- 
tiveness of soils in many parts of the corn-belt is 
beyond doubt due to the feeding of beef-cattle, 
an industry which has been profitable there for 
many years. 

As a Source of Income. — It has been noted in 
former chapters that livestock enterprises do 
not appear to be as important as a source of in- 
come in some places as in others. In the more 
southern localities, for instance, the greater 
part of the income is derived from field-crops, 
while in the more northern localities, and in the 
higher altitudes of the south, stock-enterprises 
are the sources of greatest income. This differ- 



PEOBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 129 

ence is undoubtedly due largely to contrasts in 
climate. In most northern climates the winters 
are long and cold, when practically no field- 
work may be done, and livestock gives work. 
Cold weather in the winter, and the cool springs 
and autumns with a relatively short hot season, 
make conditions favourable for the production 
of dairy products. Feeders, especially, thrive 
well with cheap temporary shelter in the dry, 
cold winters of the North-central States. Here 
the relatively high rainfall during the hot sum- 
mer months is in contrast to the relatively dry 
summers in the south, and, combined with a re- 
markably fertile soil, conditions are favourable 
for the production of most kinds of animals. 

In the Appalachian Mountains the higher 
levels, as has been noted, receive frequent rains, 
and the amount is large as compared with other 
sections. Where the soils in this region are de- 
rived from limestone, or where soils contain 
lime, such as do most of the red soils of West 
Virginia, bluegrass grows vigorously, main- 
taining itself against weeds and tree-sprouts. 
Such districts are largely developed for graz- 
ing. The bluegrass regions of Kentucky and 



130 FARM MANAGEMENT 

Tennessee are famous for the production of 
saddle horses, mules, and export beef-cattle. 
The advantages for livestock production in these 
sections lie mostly in the soil, which contains a 
large amount of lime-phosphate, an ingredient 
especially favourable for the vigorous growth of 
bluegrass, and the heavy clay subsoils hold mois- 
ture well. The climate, however, is not so 
favourable, as may be seen from charts show- 
ing the type of climate. The long, hot sum- 
mers are relatively dry. Then, too, much 
of the soil lies shallow on the limestone rock, 
which is impervious to moisture except through 
cracks and crevices. Wells are not a reliable 
source of water, and most of the water for stock 
is surface-water held in ponds made at conven- 
ient places on the farms. 

Indirect Benefit. — In the economy of farm-or- 
ganisation stock-enterprises may be considered 
mainly from the point of view of the most profit- 
able utilisation of grain, hay, and forage crops 
and of such by-products as would be largely 
wasted unless fed to stock. On a large number 
of farms straw, corn-fodder, by-products of the 
dairy, etc., are utilise(3 to advantage by the right 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 131 

kind of animals. Where winter grains are 
raised, and such winter cover-crops as vetch, 
crimson clover, and rape, stock of various kinds 
may graze profitably during the fall, winter and 
spring months, and fall and winter lambs may 
be profitably reared and marketed. In some 
cases livestock may serve a useful purpose in 
subduing the enemies of crops. For instance, 
sheep have proven to be valuable animals in 
keeping down weeds in orchard grass. So 
valuable were these animals found to be for this 
purpose in a well-known orchard-grass section, 
that farmers having no sheep borrowed their 
neighbours * sheep for this purpose. The use of 
goats for destroying young tree-sprouts is well- 
known. 

Farmers in the corn-belt, and those who live 
on high-priced land, have not, as a rule, found it 
profitable to raise young stock. Except where 
cattle are *^ finished off" on permanent pasture 
on such farms, they are kept but a short time — 
two to four months. They are expected to 
utilise the grain and other food profitably, and 
are kept only as long as is necessary to accom- 
plish this purpose. 



132 FARM MANAGEMENT 

Animal Units. — In discussing the use of ani- 
mals on the farm it has been found to be con- 
venient to reduce each class of animals to terms 
of a common unit. The average eow, steer, 
horse, or mule may be considered an animal unit, 
since the average animal of any of these classes 
will eat about the same amount of feed. 

TABLE 4 

SHOWING EQUIVALENT OF DIFFERENT CLASSES OF 
LIVESTOCK IN TERMS OF ANIMAL UNITS 

1 steer, cow, horse or mule 1 animal unit 

2 calves, heifers or colts " 

7 sheep " 

14 lambs " 

5 hogs " 

10 pigs " 

100 chickens " 

The number of animal units that may profit- 
ably be kept on a farm will depend on the situa- 
tion and size of the farm, the soil and climatic 
conditions, the type of farming, the cropping- 
system, and on varying market conditions. 
This will be discussed hereafter. 

The growing-season and available time for 
field-crop work has an important relation to the 
livestock problems. In a region where these are 



PHOBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 133 

long, where the soil is not well adapted to pas- 
ture-grasses, a man may find that he can make 
more profitable use of his time and capital by 
spending a relatively large portion of it on crop- 
production and only a small portion on live- 
stock. Livestock enterprises and field-crops 
then may be combined to distribute labour to ad- 
vantage. In the corn-belt, where cattle feeding 
is extensively carried on, the farmer gives his 
attention to feeding animals from about October 
to May, when little field-work may be done. 
During the growing-season most of the livestock 
is ofiF his hands, so that there is little interfer- 
ence with work. 

The raising of lambs for the early spring 
market, or even for a late market, is an excellent 
enterprise in relation to the distribution of 
labour; and hogs in certain types of farming 
may easily be made important in this rela- 
tion. 

Labour Expense of Keeping Livestock. — Livestock 
enterprises are noticeably different from crop 
enterprises in that the latter require a much 
larger labour expense in proportion to value 



134 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

tlian do the former. While the labour-expense 
of livestock enterprises is relatively low, the ex- 
pense for food, materials and equipment is high. 
The labour is largely routine or daily labour, 
which is affected little by the weather, and dairy 
cattle and poultry must receive about the same 
amount of attention the year round, and there- 
fore such enterprises are often profitably car- 
ried on alone. Nevertheless at certain definite 
periods special work is called for. For in- 
stance sheep need to be sheared at the proper 
time and lambs must be cared for during the 
lambing season. On the average farm, the 
routine work is largely included in ** chores,'^ 
which the farmer and his help do in the morning 
and evening, so that but little of the time avail- 
able for field-work is devoted to caring for stock. 
On some larger farms, however, the stock may 
require the continuous time of one or more men. 
On a 1000-acre farm in Tennessee, employing 
ten to fifteen labourers, one man manages the 
crop-enterprises, another the livestock; and a 
daily record of time spent shows that for 200 
animal units the entire time of two men was em- 
ployed. 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 135 



TABLE 5 

SHOWING LABOUR AND POWER UNITS PER ANIMAL 
UNIT ON SEVERAL GRAZING FARMS 



Class 


Labour units 
per year 


Power units 
per year 


Steers 


1.00 

1.50 

1.45 

14.00 


1.00 


Hogs 

Calves and lambs .... 
Dairy cows 


0.75 
0.20 







From survey-records on about 50 farms in a 
well-developed farming district in West Vir- 
ginia, on the average farm, with about 32 ani- 
mal units, about four hours per day were re- 
quired to feed and care for the animals, includ- 
ing work-stock. 

The proper feeding and handling of livestock 
on the modern farm has come to be a specialised 
and somewhat technical business. Take the 
feeding of steers for the market, for instance. 
To be the most profitable, it requires experience 
and especially good judgment in buying. The 
shape of the animal, and certain features of the 
hair, skin, etc., will indicate to the expert cattle- 
feeder first-class qualities. Standard rations 
for all classes of livestock have been worked out 
and are available to any one wishing to know 



136 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

about them. The successful feeder, however, 
must know how to vary such rations to suit the 
appetite of the animals. In such undertakings 
the knowledge most essential for success is that 
which can be secured only by experience, accom- 
panied by keenness of observation and ability to 
grasp principles. 

Livestock and Soil-fertility. — Livestock is gen- 
erally considered of great value in keeping up 
the fertility of the soil. In a previous chapter 
cattle-feeding was briefly discussed as a means 
of securing soil-fertility. In this country, as a 
rule, farmers have not placed a high value on 
manure. In an agricultural survey made in 
"West Virginia, about forty years ago, it was ob- 
served that usually manure was thrown out of 
the barn into a ravine or creek to be washed into 
the river. This practice is too common in 
that State today, as well as in other places. 
Of course the hauling and spreading of manure 
costs money, and the farmer must realise that U 
pays to put it on the land before he goes to tho 
expense of hauling it. The following table 
from Warren's **Farm Management** gives the 
scientific facts relative to manure, as worked 




00 



PEOBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 137 



out by Eoberts, and is a good basis upon which 
to calculate its value on a farm ; the cost of the 
fertilising ingredients, nitrogen, phosphorus 
and potash vary in different localities. 



TABLE 6 



MANURE PRODUCED 


PER 1,000 POUNDS OF LIVE 




WEIGHT PER YEAR 
















Approx- 




Excre- 
ment 
tons 


Manure 
with 

tedding 
tons 


"Nitro- 
gen 
pounds 


Phos- 
phorus 
pounds 


Potash 
pounds 


imate 
cost 
if pur- 
chased 
in fer- 
tilisers 


Horse . . . 


8.<J 


12.1 


15;} 


81 


150 


$33.72 


Cow 


13.5 


14.6 


137 


92 


140 


31.20 


Slieei) . . 


6.2 


9.6 


175 


88 


133 


36.84 


Calf . . . 


12.4 


14.8 


150 


105 


102 


32.28 


Pig ..... 


15.3 


18.2 


331 


158 


130 


64.48 


Fowls . . 


4.3 




293 


119 


72 


54.52 



On most farms manure is considered worth 
about $1 per ton at the barn, but on some truck- 
farms near cities it is worth $2 per ton. 

It has been estimated that about two-thirds of 
the fertiliser ingredients found in the feed of 
animals is recovered in manure. According to 
investigations, only one-third to two-thirds of 
the manure produced on farms is actually put on 
the land. Of course a good deal of it that is no^ 
accounted for by the farmer gets on to the land 



138 FARM MANAGEMENT 

by animals grazing, or walking about over the 
land, and in some places the greatest value of the 
manure is found to be in the humus it supplies 
to the soil. In such cases farmers find that 
straw and other forms of by-products give prac- 
tically the same results as manure. 

From the table it may be seen that the value of 
manure per 1000 pounds of weight from hogs 
and poultry is about twice as great as that from 
other classes of livestock. The reason for this 
lies in the fact that hogs and poultry eat about 
twice as much per pound of weight as do other 
domestic animals. It may be safely assumed 
that a farm carrying about 35 livestock units 
(livestock reduced to 1000-pound units) will 
theoretically produce about 450 tons of stable- 
manure. Under average conditions one-half to 
two-thirds of this amount will be made use of on 
the farm. On the best farms, where much of it 
is hauled directly from the stable to the field, 
and where the remainder is well taken care of in 
specially provided places, probably nine-tenths 
of the value may be saved. If 350 tons out of 
the 450 produced could be scattered on the land 
at the rate of 10 tons per acre, about 35 acres of 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 139 

a farm should be covered each year. On the 
average farm of 160 acres, with a four- or five- 
year rotation, the fertility of the best lands 
ought to be fairly well maintained by this means. 
The mineral fertiliser alone contained in this 
amount of manure would cost on the market 
nearly $1000. The spreading of these mineral 
elements on the land in the form of manure in- 
volves, of course, a large item in labour, but this 
should not cost the farm over $150, allowing for 
waste, cost of hauling, etc. 

If it be assumed that the crop-products fed to 
animals would otherwise be taken from the farm, 
the value of each animal unit to the farm, as a 
means of conserving fertility, ought not to be 
less than $20. 

Utilisation of Waste.— On many farms such by- 
products as straw and corn-stover commands 
little if any market value. In order to com- 
mand market value the price obtained should ex- 
ceed the cost of producing and hauling them to 
market. The usual farm-price for corn-fodder 
in shock, where there is a ready market, is about 
$2 to $4 per ton (the product of about an acre 
of 50-bushel corn). Straw unbaled in the same 



140 FARM MANAGEMENT 

localities will have a farm-value of $1 to $2 per 
ton. Taking corn as the standard for stock-food 
value, these products are equivalent to about 
.25, In such cases, of course, it is assumed that 
all the material is eaten. Practically, however, 
these rough feeds are seldom more than half 
consumed. Thus a corn-crop of 40 bushels per 
acre will produce about 1500 pounds of stover 
per acre. Theoretically this would have the 
food-value of about seven bushels of corn, and 
practically about three to four bushels; at 75 
cents per bushel this would be worth $2.25 to $3 
per acre, a considerable item in the income from 
the land. Ordinary wheat-straw, while produc- 
ing about the same weight per acre for a 20- 
bushel crop, has practically less feeding value 
than corn-stover. Still its utilisation for feed 
on the farm may be of considerable consequence. 
As a matter of fact it is a general practice in 
good agriculture to feed young stock such rough- 
age during the winter, counting on summer pas- 
ture to put on growth and fat. In the blue- 
grass region of Kentucky steers are bought at 
two to three years old in the fall, ** roughed 
through '^ the winter, and sold off the bluegrass 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 141 

pastures in the fall. In this manner the fine 
* * export cattle ' ' were produced for many years ; 
and by such a practice a value is created for the 
by-products of the farm. This practice also in- 
creases the manurial value of the material util- 
ised by stock, since in this way it is put into a 
better mechanical condition, to serve as manure. 
In fact, such products are seldom returned to 
the soil in any other way, as when not fed they 
have too frequently been burned or otherwise 
wasted. 

Because so much of the livestock raised on 
farms utilises products that would otherwise be 
wasted, and because in many cases it may be 
handled to fill up gaps in the work-periods of the 
farmer, it is difficult to estimate the actual cost 
of raising it. Thus in many good agricultural 
districts, while the raising of young stock would 
not pay as a major farm-enterprise, a few ani- 
mals might increase the total profits on the 
farm. Most of the poultry and poultry-prod- 
ucts marketed in the United States is produced 
on ordinary farms at a really low cost because 
75-120 chickens on the average farm live 
largely on products that otherwise would be 



142 FARM MANAGEMENT 

wasted. The care of such a number is regarded 
as a sort of side interest by the farmers them- 
selves, or as a relief from routine work in the 
house by the wife. 

From a business record on a West Virginia 
farm, considered by the owner and his neigh- 
bours as a dairy farm, the following statement 
showed the sources of his income : 

Crops $424 Stock $300 

Butter and milk (6 cows) 210 Eggs (125 hens) 375 

Poultry 25 

In this case, poultry treated as a minor enter- 
prise is on the basis of farm income the major 
enterprise. The poultry on this farm, however, 
were of extra quality and were well cared for. 

In handling livestock-enterprises the object 
in most cases is to make profits on natural in- 
crease and growth of animals, on animal prod- 
ucts, such as dairy-products, eggs, wool, etc., or 
in fattening animals on special rations. Such 
animals as horses and mules, on the other hand, 
increase in value also by training. Until re- 
cently the breeding and training of saddle- 
horses and trotters was one of the important 
enterprises in the bluegrass section of Ken- 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 143 

iucky. The system of training was complicated, 
requiring at various stages of development the 
attention of experts. The horses thus trained 
had to have a high market value in order to pay 
for the labour expended on them. The breed- 
ing and raising of thoroughbred stock is an en- 
terprise engaged in by a few who have given the 
subject a special study, and who are able to 
finance the advertising features of the business. 
Profits from Cattle. — ^When cattle are being fat- 
tened the farmer expects the largest possible in- 
crease in weight at the minimum cost of feed 
and labour. The dairyman measures his suc- 
cess by the quantity of milk or butter-fat pro- 
duced for a given cost of feed and labour. The 
most important factor in getting results along 
this line is quality in stock, as is well illustrated 
by a dairy herd of Guernsey cows. Eight head 
of thoroughbred cows averaged 10,689 pounds 
of milk and 501 pounds of butter-fat. Eight 
grade cows fed in the same barn with the same 
care averaged 5952.9 pounds of milk. The best 
thoroughbred produced 13,570 pounds of milk 
and the best grade 8784. The board of these 
cows and the labour of milking cost $20 per 



144 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

month each. In this case about 70 cows lived 
luxuriously in a $10,000 barn; moreover, the 
thoroughbreds were valued at not less than 
$1,000 each, so that, counting interest on invest- 
ment, depreciation, insurance and items of serv- 
ice, the thoroughbreds, even though milk 
brought 8 cents per quart, would not much more 
than pay for themselves, since the total cost of 
such cows would be about $400 per year, while 
the milk produced brought only $427, leaving a 
profit of about $27. The grade cows in this 
herd did still worse financially, since at a cost 
of about $265 they produced only about $238 
worth of milk at 8 cents a quart. But the 
owner, as a breeder of thoroughbred animals, 
could make money by having the cows of poor 
quality teach a valuable lesson. 

A good average dairy cow should be expected 
to produce at least 5000 pounds of milk and 
about 250 pounds of butter-fat per year, on about 
1500 pounds of grain and concentrates, and 1900 
pounds of hay and roughage — 7500 pounds of 
silage and about 180 days on pasture. On the 
average dairy farm the entire labour-require- 
ment per cow is about 30 minutes per day. This 



PEOBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 145 

includes marketing the milk, making the butter, 
etc.^ Under less luxurious surroundings, such 
as an ordinary clean farm could furnish, the 
total expense in the same locality should not ex- 
ceed $150. 

Steers of good quality should gain about 21/2 
pounds per day during the feeding period. The 
average shote or hog, on a fattening ration, 
should gain about 1% pounds per day; or about 
9 to 12 bushels of grain should make 100 pounds 
gain. Hens properly cared for should lay about 
120 eggs per year. On the average farm hens 
lay about 60 eggs each. Sows are expected to 
raise, until weaning time, at least ten pigs per 
year in two litters. Ewes are expected to rear 
at least 100 per cent, of their number. 

Depreciation. — In counting the cost of raising 
livestock one of the most important items is de- 
preciation. Animals are liable to many dis- 
eases that it costs money to control, and, even 
with the modern knowledge and equipment for 

1 The cost of keeping a dairy cow varies greatly according 
to methods of feeding and keeping the cow, and with loca- 
tion. The regular dairymen find the total cost to vary be- 
tween $80 and $150 including all costs. The ordinary farm 
cow costs much less — $50 to $75 per year. 



146 FARM MANAGEMENT 

control of diseases, the loss is often disastrous. 
The better breeds of livestock are more liable 
than the poorer to succumb to diseases and the 
hardships of ordinary farm life, so that the de- 
preciation is greater with this class. It prob- 
ably would not be far out of the way on the aver- 
age farm to allow 10 per cent, for cost of de- 
preciation. The variation is very great for 
different classes of livestock. Even with dairy 
cows the variation is great on account of value 
of animals, breed, etc. Depreciation on sheep, 
hogs and hens is probably higher than on any 
other class of animals, on account of special 
liability to diseases, and enemies of various 
kinds. 

In selecting and handling crops on the farm it 
was pointed out that good management was in- 
dicated in keeping a proper relation between 
total expenses and production, and to aim for 
high prices for products. This point of view 
is specially important in dealing with livestock. 
In order to get high prices for the produce the 
quality must be good. The following table 
gives the prices of the same class of livestock, 
but different in grade, for the same period, illus- 



PROBLEMS OF LIVESTOCK 147 



trating how it is possible for a farmer to buy 
feeders at the proper time of year, feed them his 
grain, and sell them almost any time of the year 
for at least a dollar per hundredweight higher 
than the price paid. Cattle-feeders usually con- 
sider the business a losing one unless they are 
able to realise this difference in price. 

The profitableness of any class of livestock on 
a farm depends also on market facilities, just 
as was pointed out in the previous chapter on 
crops. There are forces which tend to localise 
the enterprises. Thus butter and cheese mak- 
ing are confined to three or four States in the 
North where relatively cheap feed is accessible, 
where markets are established, where there are 
facilities for handling, and where there is an 
established reputation for reliable products. 

TABLE 7 

SHOWING AVERAGE PRICE FOR FOUR YEARS OF TWO 
CLASSES OF STEERS IN THE MARKET 



'99-'03 
Month 


Price per 100 wt. 

Best fat steer 
Cincinnati price 


'99-WS 
Month 


Price per 100 tct. 
Common steer 
St. Louis price 


Jan 

Feb 

Mar 

Apr 

May 


$5.45 
5.34 
5.30 
5.49 
5.48 


Jan 

Feb 

Mar 

Apr 

May 


$3.82 
3.81 
3.98 
4.17 
4.21 



148 



FAEM MANAGEMENT 



'99-'03 
Month 


Price per 100 wt. 

Best fat steer 

Cincinnati price 


'99-'03 
Month 


Price per 100 wt. 

Common steer 

St. Louis price 


June 

July 

Aug 

Sept 

Oct 

Nov 

Dec 


5.62 
5.70 
5.84 
5.73 
5.64 
5. .50 
5.67 


June 

July 

Aug 

Sept 

Oct 

Nov 

Dec 


4.00 
3.87 
3.88 
3.99 
3.54 
3.48 
3.63 



CHAPTER VII 
FARM ORGANISATION 

In" previous chapters the various resources 
and factors which must be dealt with in man- 
aging a farm have been discussed briefly. 
Crops and live-stock enterprises are the means 
through which the resources of the soil and cli- 
mate are made available for use and profit. 

The farm may have important advaiitages due 
to location ; otherwise such advantages must be 
had through control. Natural advantages, such 
as good soil, favourable climate, and nearness to 
market, become capitalised, and in a well-de- 
veloped agricultural district have to be bought 
at prices commensurable with such advantages ; 
and, as has been shown, to secure advantages by 
means of control also costs money. A new and 
undeveloped section may have natural advan- 
tages, but to secure these often requires patient 
waiting, experimenting, and the endurance of 
considerable hardship. 

The farm is a human institution, which means 

149 



150 FARM MANAGEMENT 

that agricultural practices and systems of farm- 
ing developed in the past are handed down from 
generation to generation. These practices and 
systems, of course, improve and change in re- 
sponse to a new environment or changes in eco- 
nomic conditions. It is characteristic of human 
institutions that when once established they 
normally change only gradually and conserva- 
tively, but ultimately the most fit must prevail. 
This is characteristic of the farm-institution, as 
it develops in response to the agricultural needs 
of the people. 

What Constitutes Organisation. — The selection 
and adjustment of crops and stock-enterprises 
to the natural and economic environment, the 
proportion of these to size of area, the relation 
of available capital and labour to the size of 
business, together constitute farm organisation. 

Given a definite situation, the resources to a 
certain extent may be measured. The soil has 
a certain degree of productiveness and is 
adapted to certain crops. The climate limits 
the rainfall and its distribution; also the grow- 
ing-season and the number of days available for 
field-work. Accessibility to market and the 



FARM OEGANISATION 151 

general economic situation limit possibilities. 
The types of farms that have developed and sur- 
vived surrounded by a set of such conditions 
have a rational explanation, because the price of 
land, the area farmed, the rotation system fol- 
lowed, the amount of each kind of crop, the 
number of each kind of live-stock, bear some 
relation to the farm as a unit. When we at- 
tempt to analyse a farm from this standpoint 
we study farm organisation. 

In any line of human endeavour organisation 
results when there is an attempt to economise 
the resources dealt with. When the farmer can 
devise a crew of one man and six horses to do 
his ploughing, he is saving the labour of one to 
two men, and is applying the principles of econ- 
omy on his farm. When the crops growing on a 
farm are not only such as are adapted to soil 
and climate, and to marketing opportunities, 
but also secure good distribution of labour and 
co-operate to maintain the fertility of the soil, 
there is evidence of relation between such crops 
and the farm as a whole. Such a farm is well 
organised. The rotation of crops, the arrange- 
ment and size of fields, the location and general 



152 FARM MANAGEMENT 

planning of buildings and yards, are also prob- 
lems of farm organisation. 

In Chapter V a chart is given showing how 
a single crop, even well adapted to the region, 
cannot profitably occupy men and teams en- 
gaged in farming. By combining two crops, as 
corn and oats, a better and more profitable dis- 
tribution of labour occurs. By raising oats 
with corn there is opportunity to do fall plough- 
ing, thus allowing the available time in the 
spring to be used not only in planting more 
corn, but almost as large an acreage of oats 
besides. But the problem of maintaining fer- 
tility is also a serious one, so that a crop valu- 
able for this purpose has been selected to enter 
into the rotation. Red clover is the crop that 
has proved itself best fitted to supply the needs 
of fertility maintenance ; and its labour-require- 
ments, do not interfere to any extent with the 
corn-crop. During the several months in late 
fall and winter, when there are no days avail- 
able for field-work, the feeding of corn to cattle 
and hogs is an enterprise that under prevailing 
economic conditions has proved to be a profit- 
able means of marketing the corn. These en- 



FARM ORGANISATION 153 

terprises then, corn, oats, and clover, steers 
and hogs, enable the farmer in that region to 
employ his time profitably. 

Labour as a Factor. — In many parts of the corn- 
belt the labour problem is serious, and partly as 
a consequence of this an interesting type of 
farm has developed.^ The enterprises are corn, 
rye, clover, timothy, and hogs. Labour is 
saved by having the hogs harvest the grain- 
crops, and pasture on the clover and timothy. 
A 100-acre farm of this type may be operated by 
one man and a three-horse team, with the hiring 
of little extra labour. On such a type of farm 
the labour distribution is about as well pro- 
vided for as could be desired. When the crops 
require attention the hogs largely take care of 
themselves. It is during farrowing time, and 
during the winter, that the hogs require the 
maximum amount of labour. The size of the 
fields and their arrangement are adapted to 
** hogging off.'' The planting of crops is timed 
in such a way that they are ready in succession 
to be harvested by the hogs. This type of farm- 
ing and scheme of organisation may be adapta- 

1 Tlie orsranisation of this type of farm is described in 
U. S. Dept^ Agr. Farmers' Bulletin No. 614. 



154 FARM MANAGEMENT 

ble elsewhere. With different soil and climatic 
conditions different crops may be utilised. 

In Fig. 9, there is shown the distribution 
and amount of labour required on a 100-acre 
farm adapted to lower elevations, in the 
South-central States. The work on such a farm 
may be done by one man and three horses. The 
uneven line indicated by the letter a marks off 
for each month the number of days which are 
available for field-work. The black columns in- 
dicate the number of days' work required of the 
man, and the column marked by diagonal lines 
indicate the number of days' work required of 
the team. This farm has 90 acres in cultiva- 
tion, and the enterprises handled are corn, 36 
acres, cowpeas, 18 acres, wheat, 36 acres. 
These relative acreages are only approximate. 
Farmers nowhere follow strictly, as a rule, the 
rotation they have in mind. The plan that got 
good results on this farm was to have five fields 
in the following crops : 

1 2 3 4 5 

Corn Corn Cowpeas Wheat Wheat 

harvested (fallow Cowpeas 

Cowpeas Wheat for seed land after turned under 

(catch-crop) pastured and harvest) for corn 
turned under 



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FARM ORGANISATION 155 

The crops are named in the order in which 
they ordinarily follow one another. As is 
shown in the figure, the labour during the grow- 
ing-season is well distributed, and the time 
available for field-work is fully occupied. An- 
other important principle of organisation is 
shown besides this. The system indicates a 
plan to maintain the fertility of the soil and to 
keep the land free from weeds. Cowpeas are 
planted between the rows of corn, or planted 
with it. This crop supplies nitrogen to the 
soil, and where planted between the rows would 
tend to choke down weeds. After the second 
crop of corn is taken off wheat is sown, pastured 
by sheep or hogs during the winter months, and 
turned under in May to be followed by cowpeas. 
Now, cowpeas again come in to supply nitrogen 
to the soil. Whether sown broadcast or culti- 
vated, weeds will stand little show, and peas 
leave the land in good shape to be followed by 
wheat with but little preparation. The wheat- 
crop following is succeeded by fallowing — a pro- 
cess designed to kill weeds and conserve mois- 
ture. Another wheat-crop is then put on the field, 
and is followed by peas to turn under for corn. 



156 FARM MANAGEMENT 

The corn on this farm is marketed through 
hogs. The year that a record was given on the 
farm the total production amounted to about 
$2000, and the labour-income to about $540. 
About 175 of the 200 days available were utilised 
in doing field-work. The days not used came in 
the late fall and winter, when virtually the only 
farm-work that may be done is ploughing, or 
hauling and spreading manure. Figured on 
the basis of the amount of time put in on field- 
work, such a farmer doing the work himself 
would earn about $3.25 a day. 

In the same latitude of the farm just de- 
scribed, and in the dark-tobacco belt of south- 
west Kentucky, a type of farm has developed 
which uses a larger acreage of land and is 
adapted to the labour-conditions of that region. 
The system of farming found established on this 
farm is indicated in the following outline : 

Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 

Corn— 70A Wheat— 90A Wheat— 90A Clover— 90A 
(Follow corn (Follows sum- (First crop cut 
and tobacco mer fallow of for hay and 
after disking Field 2.) some of second 

Tobacco — 20A and harrow- crop for seed — 

ing.) turned in fall 

and winter for 
corn. ) 



FARM ORGANISATION 157 

This outline of a system of farming was the 
one in use on a particular 360-acre farm studied 
by the author and will serve as an illustration 
of the benefits of reorganisation. This farm 
uses ten mules as work stock and employs four 
regular hands eight months, and three regular 
hands four months, with such extra labour as is 
needed. 

As operated under the system outlined above 
the distribution of both man and horse labour is 
poor. There is not enough work provided for 
regular available labour during the spring 
months, while during the summer months from 
June to September considerable extra labour is 
needed. This extra labour is required mainly 
on account of tobacco, which must have special 
attention during the growing period. (See Fig. 
6.) Except in the rush season during June and 
July the teams are idle a good deal of the time 
when work might be done in the fields. 

To avoid the necessity of boarding idle mules, 
and to increase the productiveness of the soil, a 
change was suggested in this system of crop- 
ping, indicated in the following outline : 



158 



FARM MANAQEMENT 



Field 1 


Field 2 


Field 3 


Field 4 


Corn— 70A 


Soy Beans 50 


Wheat— 90A 


Clover — 90 A 




( Cut for seed 


(Fallow dur- 


(Cut for hay 


(Rye or wheat 


i n Septem- 


ing summer 


and later save 


for winter 


ber.) 


and sow clo- 


for seed.) 


cover crop.) 




ver in Au- 
gust or Sep- 
tember. ) 




Tobacco — 20A 


Soy Beans 40 






( Cover crop 


( Hogged 






as above.) 


down in Au- 
gust and 
September. ) 







There is no radical change in this system sug- 
gested. The rotation scheme remains as before. 
The main point in the improved plan is the sub- 
stitution of soy beans for wheat in one field, 
and a cover crop after corn. The substitution 
not only gives a better distribution of labour 
but provides for increased yields by putting an- 
other legume into the rotation. The plan also 
provides for more vegetable matter in the soil 
by growing a winter cover crop to be turned 
under before planting soy beans. Hogs do 
some of the harvesting of the soy bean crop 
thus saving labour. 

As a result of the change suggested it is cal- 
culated that about 400 power-units will be saved 
and about 30 labour-units. The cost to that 
farm of these power-units would be about $250, 



FARM ORGANISATION 159 

The man labour saved, however, would hardly 
be worth considering on so large a farm. 

Utilisation of Time. — In describing somewhat 
in detail the problem of reorganisation on this 
farm it is not intended to recommend a system 
of farming for any particular locality (since it 
might be found impracticable), but to illustrate 
the principles involved in farm organisation. 
There is suggested also a method for intelli- 
gently solving a problem of reorganisation. 
By means of a chart showing for a given locality 
when the operations on various enterprises may 
be done, and the number of labour-units and 
power-units each operation requires (see Fig. 
5, Chapter V), any one may readily calcu- 
late for an individual farm the amount and dis- 
tribution of labour required. Of course there 
can be shown only such distribution as would 
occur under average conditions. The variation 
in the weather, the failure of certain crops, and 
changes in prices of commodities to be sold will 
force changes in any plan previously considered. 

In describing the organisation of the types of 
farms found in several localities where differ- 
ent soil, climatic, and economic conditions pre- 



160 FARM MANAGEMENT 

vail, the reader has observed that no matter 
how well the available time is utilised and dis- 
tributed much time is unaccounted for. How 
does the farmer occupy this time? This is an 
interesting and important problem. In the 
corn-belt it has been pointed out that the farmer 
may use a part at least of the fall and winter 
months in feeding stock or in dairying. On the 
hog-farm described a good deal of time was 
taken up during the winter in tending hogs. In 
the more southern climates, where the last farm 
described is situated, some time during the win- 
ter months is consumed in ploughing, hauling 
manure, spreading lime, etc. Much of the time 
unavailable for field-work is utilised in handling 
and marketing tobacco. This is no doubt one 
reason that tobacco is so important a crop in 
several Southern States. From information 
available it appears that about one-third of all 
farm-labour is put on miscellaneous work, such 
as repairs of all kinds, ditching, hauling, test- 
ing and cleaning seed, etc. On the smaller 
farms the time required by stock is regarded as 
** doing chores. '' On the average medium sized 
farm with 30 to 40 animal units the time occu- 



FARM ORGANISATION 161 

pied in ^^ doing chores'* varies from about two 
to five hours a day. 

The farmer naturally wants to employ his 
time on enterprises that in the long run pay 
best ; but the time he may employ profitably on 
such enterprises is limited by physical condi- 
tions. When land is cheap and certain staple 
commodities, like wheat, corn, hay, or cotton, 
bring a fair price, a reasonably large and profit- 
able business may be carried on without a great 
deal of diversity. As land becomes higher in 
price there must be larger profits per acre, and 
to get these the farmer in most cases is forced 
to diversify. This explains why in such States 
as Oregon and Washington the total production 
of wheat has gradually fallen. The more prof- 
itable farms are growing clover for seed, peas 
and hogs, besides wheat. Economic pressure 
will force changes in farm organisation result- 
ing in new types. This change in organisation 
is marked by a corresponding change in area, 
diversity, intensity of cultivation, and increased 
yields. The following is an outline of several 
cropping systems developed near a city and 
shows how types of farms change as land prices 
increase : 



162 



FAEM MANAGEMENT 



OUTLINE OF CROPPING SYSTEMS 

SHOWING THE CHANGES OCCURRING IN TYPES OF 
FARMS NEAR A LARGE CITY IN CENTRAL WEST 



Value of 

land per 

acre 



$500-$1000 
One to two 
miles from city. 



$300-$500 
Good soil near 
suburban towns. 



$100-$300 
Fifteen to 20 
miles from city, 
but near rail- 
road. 



Cotnhination of 

crops once profitable 

now disappearing 



acres 

Potatoes 6 

Corn 4 

Tomatoes 2 

Pear orchard . . 5 
Apple orchard . . 2 

Onions 1 

Blackberries ... Vo 

Pasture 20 ' 

Total 401/2 



Potatoes, 1st 

crop 20 

Potatoes, 2nd 

crop 10 

Barley 15 

Cowpeas 40 

Clover 40 

Perm, pastr. ... 100 

Total 225 

Corn 30 

Wheat 35 

Clover 35 

Potatoes 10 

Rye 5 

Per. pasture . . . 120 

Total 235 



Combination of crops 
no 10 more profitable 



acres 
Potatoes, Ist 

crop 8 

Potatoes 2nd 

crop 8 

Swt Potatoes. . 5 

Cabbage 4 

Onions 4 

Beets 1 

Carrots % 

Beans % 

Total 31 

Potatoes, 1st 

crop 65 

Potatoes 2nd 

crop 25 

Corn 20 

Wheat 25 

Onion sets .... 3 

Cowpeas 15 

Clover 25 

Total 178 

Corn 40 

Wheat 35 

Potatoes 20 

Orchard grass. . 40 
Per. pasture. ... 65 
Clover 15 

Total 215 



FARM ORGANISATION 



163 



Value of 

land per 

acre 



$75-$ 100 
Rather poor 
quality of soil. 
but fairly well 
located. 



Combination of 

crops once profitable 

now disappearing 



acres 
Potatoes, 1st 

crop 2 

Corn 7 

Pasture 16 

Soy beans 2 

Cowpeas 10 

Strawberries ... 1 

Total 38 



Combination of crops 
now more profitable 



acres 



1st 



2nd 



Potatoes, 

crop . 
Potatoes, 

crop 

Swt. Potatoes. . 

Turnips 

Strawberries . . 
Onions for seed 

Pasture 5 

Corn 5 



10 

14 
5 
1 
2 
2 



Total 44 



Note. — The acreage of each crop increases or decreases to 
some extent from year to year, according to the farmer's esti- 
mate of future prices. On the high-priced land near the city 
there is often a larger assortment of truck crops and occasion- 
ally a greenhouse to grow winter vegetables. 



Questions of Size. — Here is shown the tendency 
toward increased diversity and smaller farms. 
The ability to control capital and secure labour 
is the important limiting factor in increasing 
the size of a business. So the farms become 
smaller in size as the land increases in value. 
Each acre of land is required to do more work 
in order to secure greater profit from it. This 
is accomphshed not only by diversity, which en- 
ables the farmer to make better use of his avail- 
able time, but more crops are grown on the 



164 FARM. MANAGEMENT 

same acre, as when late cabbage follows a first 
crop of potatoes the same year, and between 
the rows there may be sown kale or spinach to 
sell late in the fall and in early spring, and to 
turn under for a succeeding crop. The capac- 
ity of each acre to carry a heavier load is also 
increased by larger applications of fertiliser 
and stable-manure. This results in more inten- 
sive farming. When it becomes economically 
advantageous to increase further the size of 
business on a smaller acreage, the greenhouse 
is used, which requires a large expenditure for 
glass, heating fixtures, etc. On the most valu- 
able land very little income comes from stock or 
stock-products except for an occasional poultry 
or dairy farm. 

The type of farm found developing in a defi- 
nite location today will probably not exist here 
ten years hence, since the city will have grown, 
the suburbs moved out further, and new roads 
and new trolley lines will have been established. 

In such States as Iowa, typical of the corn- 
belt, farms are tending to increase in size. In 
the type of farms prevailing there it is more 
practical to increase labour-income by increase 



FAEM ORGANISATION 165 

in area. The four-horse and six-horse teams 
enabling one man to prepare and plant large 
crop-areas, the farm grain-elevator that enables 
rapid unloading, thereby permitting one man 
and team to husk 80 bushels of corn per day, 
instead of 60, economic conditions making it 
more profitable to grow more young stock and 
thus to increase pasture area — all these com- 
bined enable the farmer to increase his income 
along these lines to better advantage than by 
greater diversity and more intensive farming. 
Three Main Factors. — The foregoing study of 
farm organisation makes clear three main fac- 
tors which mark changes in farm organisation, 
namely, size, diversity, and quality. Under cer- 
tain conditions the farm organisation shows ex- 
pansion in one line and contraction in another. 
Under a different set of conditions the tendency 
will be in the opposite direction. In the same 
locality these changes one way or another are 
going on. The result is that certain types of 
farms tend to become established and others are 
disappearing. The farmer must be on the 
alert for these changes and understand their 
significance. 



166 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

Given a certain type, such as the general 
farming we see carried on in the great agricul- 
tural States, the size of the business is usually 
increased by increasing the crop-area. This re- 
quires capital, and where land is high in price a 
few added acres mean a rapid increase in capi- 
tal. "When investing a large amount in land the 
farmer considers the risk on capital invested, 
the probable rise in value or possible decrease, 
and the probability of a change in the prevail- 
ing type of farming which must affect land- 
value. All these factors involve risk. When 
land comes to be too high in price to warrant 
the ownership of large areas, other things 
equal, there will be a tendency to rent instead 
of to own the land. This is especially true in 
those places where the farmer is limited to one 
type of farming, and that a type which requires 
large area. In such places the tenant-farms 
will average larger than those owned and 
farmed. One who owns his land may get a liv- 
ing income from both his capital and his serv- 
ices as manager, while a renter must be limited 
to his small working-capital invested and what 
he can make above operating expenses. Kecent 



FARM ORGANISATION 167 

investigations comparing relative investment in 
land and working-capital show the relation to be 
approximately : Land, about 84 per cent., work- 
ing-capital, 16 per cent. The tenant is a capitalist 
to the extent only of his investment in working- 
capital. He must pay his rent to the landlord. 

A single farm-unit is limited in size of area. 
In the most favourable locations where land 
may be divided into good-sized and regular 
fields, and where there are no obstructions to 
machinery, the economic handling of a farm- 
unit cannot extend much beyond possibly 800 to 
1000 acres. By a farm-unit is meant the land 
around a single farmstead where the operator 
and his hands live. One man, of course, may 
manage several such units even when separated 
widely. In the famous blue-grass region of 
Kentucky the capital invested in single farm- 
units ranges from about $5000 to $200,000. 
The average on the best farms is not far from 
$40,000. The same farm-values will in a large 
measure prevail in other good agricultural re- 
gions. However, the average American who 
can control capital to the amount of $75,000 to 
$200,000 is apt to feel that he can employ it to 



168 FARM MANAGEMENT 

better advantage in other lines of economic en- 
deavour, and in surroundings more congenial or 
beneficial to his family. A large class of per- 
sons in moderate circumstances, whose prefer- 
ence might otherwise be for country life, find 
that they can command adequate school advan- 
tages, conveniences, and moderate luxuries in 
life only by moving to a town or city. These 
conditions in a general way limit the size of 
farm-business that will develop in any section. 

Within limits, the size of business may be in- 
creased through diversity of enterprises, since 
it results in furnishing more productive labour 
on a given area. This is done not only by em- 
ploying fully available time for field-work, but 
by selection of such crops as require more la- 
bour and give larger returns per acre. Even 
such staple crops as onions and potatoes, on 
soil made fertile to a high degree, are planted in 
rows closer together, besides which the land may 
yield another crop in the same year. 

Diversity results not only when there is an 
effort to utilise the area farmed and available 
time to better advantage. The diversity of 
salable products within limits usually results in 



FARM ORGANISATION 169 

a higher and more reliable farm income. This 
is probably due to the fact that the farmer takes 
many chances on the variations in weather and 
in prices. It is easier for most hunters to kill a 
bird out of a flock flying swiftly with a shotgnin 
than with a rifle. So far as getting results are 
concerned it would pay only the expert marks- 
man to use the rifle. There is a common say- 
ing that it is not safe to carry all the eggs in one 
basket, but some one has observed, if there is 
only one egg to be carried, it is better to have it 
all in one basket. This principle will apply 
equally well in farming, since to attempt to 
start more enterprises than economy would re- 
quire is disastrous. 

Quality in the farm business is shown when 
the enterprises are selected and handled in such 
a way as to bring relatively high returns. 
Quality is closely related also to production, 
which means relative yielding capacity. A 
dairy cow may show high quality in the exces- 
sively large production of milk and butter fat, 
or the milk may command a high price merely 
through cleanliness in handling. One hundred 
bushels of corn to the acre shows high produc- 



170 FARM MANAGEMENT 

tion or corn may be selected for the feeding 
qualities and prepared for market in a way to 
weigh out well and command a high price. 
Quality is shown in both ways. Within certain 
limits then the size of a farm business may be 
increased by working for quality and high pro- 
duction per unit of enterprise. 

There are several ways of measuring the size 
of a farm business, depending largely on the 
type. In general farming the acreage largely 
determines size. On a dairy farm the number 
of dairy cows would indicate the size of the 
business. On a farm where the enterprises are 
varied, such as feeding stock, raising corn, 
wheat, hay, and some tobacco, the number of 
labour-units required by all the operations 
would be a practical way to measure the size of 
business. Thus one farm might require 500 
labour-units — about what a successful average 
farm in the corn-belt would require. A farm 
with 1000 labour-units would have twice the size 
of business. The amount of capital invested in 
land and equipment make good practical stand- 
ards for most farms. When comparing farms 
of about the same area and similar in type, it is 



FARM ORGANISATION 171 

clear that size of business would be correlated 
with the operating expenses for the year, and 
that this would be a good indication of size. 

The interest that a farmer should have in the 
study of farm organisation is to understand the 
principles in such a way that he may apply them 
in detecting the elements of weakness in the or- 
ganisation of any farm type. The following 
chapter will be devoted to a discussion of prac- 
tical methods of determining farm efficiency. 

In the foregoing study of farm organisation 
it has been shown that economy in farm man- 
agement results in the development of quite 
definite relations between the various factors of 
production and efficiency and the income of the 
farm. Hence, a study of such relations will 
show the underlying economic factors in effi- 
cient farm organisation. The study of these re- 
lations should apply to farms similar in type, 
otherwise wrong conclusions will be made. For 
instance, in certain localities where the major- 
ity of farms are similar in type, such as the 
general farm in the corn-belt States or in the 
cotton belt, labour-income increases about in 
proportion to the size of farms. In other sec- 



172 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

tions, where a change in type of farming is 
going on and where two or three types have de- 
veloped, the labour income may be in inverse 
ratio to the size of farm. Taking each type by 
itself, however, the income up to a certain point 
may increase in proportion to the size of farm. 
For this reason, it is very important in draw- 
ing conclusions relative to farm organisation 
principles to have them apply to similar types. 
A big jewellery business may be done in compar- 
atively small quarters if well located, while a 
hardware and machinery business of equal size 
will require more room. They are different 
types of business. It is evident that the same 
principles apply to farming. 

The writer was invited out to see a farm near 
one of the suburbs of a large city and to advise 
the farmer relative to bringing about a change 
in the organisation so that it might pay interest 
on the valuation forced upon it, by the demand 
for residence property. The farm was about 
220 acres in size. No type of farming there 
could be made to pay, except the type that was 
developing very rapidly — the potato and truck 
farm. In order to handle such a type of farm 



FARM ORGANISATION 173 

successfully in that locality it was necessary to 
divide it up into smaller units each under sepa- 
rate management. This farm had been the 
home of the owner's ancestors for many years, 
so it did not seem agreeable to subdivide it in 
this way. Sentiment stood in the way of 
greater efficiency. In this case, the size of capi- 
tal invested in real estate was much too large in 
proportion to the receipts that were possible for 
the type adapted to a large sized farm. 

The city man with a suburban home who may 
have once started out enthusiastically in chicken 
raising soon learned, if he kept accounts, that 
the size of flock he could profitably keep was 
limited by the size of his family. If he had 
more chickens than could take care of waste 
vegetables, meal scraps, etc., besides a proper 
ration of grain, the profits per hen would fall 
off in a marked degree. This simple economic 
principle underlies the economic philosophy of 
farm organisation. Every enterprise, the vari- 
ous classes of working capital, number of la- 
bourers, work animals, etc., must be somewhere 
near the normal proportion found to exist in 
given types of farming, or the business must 
lose on account of it. 



174 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



The following table shows how important is 
the size of farms in producing an adequate in- 
come. Of the many factors concerned in the 
profitableness of farming the factor of size of 
business is probably the most important. 



TABLE 8 

RELATION OP THE SIZE OF FARM TO THE INCOME ON 273 

FARMS OPERATED BY OWNERS IN INDIANA. 

ILLINOIS, AND IOWA 





¥arms 


Distribution per acre 


Money 
available 


A.rea 


Num- 
ber 


Average 

size 
(acres) 


Receipts 


Expenses 


for farm- 
er's living 
if free of 
debt. 


40 acres and less. 

41 to 80 acres. 
81 to 120 acres. 

121 to 160 acres. 
161 to 200 acres. 
201 to 280 acres. 
281 to 400 acres, 
401 to 1,250 acres. 


32 
51 
48 
44 
31 
36 
19 
12 

273 


37.4 
72.9 
106.9 
149.4 
179.1 
239.8 
321.8 
623.8 


$18.10 
17.09 
16.22 
15.62 
18.04 
18.12 
13.89 
16.19 


$6.98 
5.46 
6.88 
5.80 
7.12 
6.70 
5.07 
6.28 


$416 
848 
998 
1.467 
1.956 
2.738 
2,838 
6,182 


Total or average 


178.3 


$17.25 


$6.38 


$1,938 



The next table below shows the relation of 
total capital invested to labour income. The 
labour income as previously explained is what 
the farmer gets besides the family living after 
all expenses including interest on capital have 
been paid. 

In U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' BuL No. 41. 



FARM ORGANISATION 



175 



TABLE 9 

RELATION OF THE FARM OWNER'S CAPITAL TO HIS 

INCOME ON 273 FARMS IN INDIANA, 

ILLINOIS, AND IOWA 



Capital 


Number 
of farms 


A verage 
labour 
income 


$5,000 and less 

$5 001 to $10,000 


9 
37 
44 
45 
55 
32 
29 
10 
12 


$74 
45 


$10,001 to $15,000 


283 


$15 001 to $20,000 


265 


$20,001 to $30,000 


264 


$30,001 to $40,000 


483 


$40,001 to $60,000 


315 


$60,001 to $80,000 


1,114 


$80,001 and over 


1,804 
408 


Average 



The distribution of capital on farms in vari- 
ous sections of the United States where surveys 
have been made is shown in the table below. 
The most important investment is in real 
estate, followed by live stock. 

TABLE 10 



PERCENTAGE OP CAPITAL 
MACHINERY, 


INVESTED IN REAL 
LIVESTOCK, ETC. 


ESTATE, 




U.S. 


N. Y. 


Penn. 


Mich. 


Ind. 


Iowa 


III. 


Ore. 


Ave. 


Real estate, in 
eluding build 
ings 

Implements and 
machinery . . 

Livestock .... 

Supplies 

Cash to run 
farm 


83.4 

3.3 
13.3 


74 

7 

15 

4 


77 

5.5 

13.7 

2.5 

1.3 


82.5 

3.5 

10.7 
2.6 

0.7 


88 

1.5 

8 

1.6 

0.9 


85.4 

1.5 
10 
2.2 

0.9 


89.3 

.9 
7.2 
1.4 

1.2 


83.8 

2.6 
7.5 
0.2 

0.9 


83.5 

3.2 

10.8 
2.0 

1.0 



CHAPTER Vni 

HOW TO MEASURE THE EFFICIENCY OF 
FARM ORGANISATION 

Successful farming is peculiarly dependent 
upon favourable weather- and soil-conditions; 
but however important these natural conditions 
must be, success seems to be even more depend- 
ent upon proper organisation. Many hundreds 
of records have been taken on farms in different 
sections of the United States, and these have 
been carefully studied and analysed, in order to 
find out the main factors upon which depend suc- 
cess or failure. In one county where such sur- 
veys were made the farms with lowest labour-in- 
comes had actually higher average crop-yields. 
In another county, and in a different region, the 
successful farms had about the same average 
crop-yield as did the unsuccessful ones ; yet there 
were farmers in both places who, realising that a 
statement of their business would show a loss, 
attributed this loss to low yields on account of 

176 



EFFICIENCY 177 

an abnormally dry year. Thus the results of in- 
vestigations made in widely scattered areas in 
the United States tend to confirm the conclusion 
that high yield of crops is only one of several 
factors in successful farming. 

In the chapter on farm organisation it was 
shown how, in the effort to economise and pre- 
vent waste by means of arranging and combin- 
ing the enterprises, and by utilising the other 
resources of the farm, important changes oc- 
curred along three main lines; (1) size of busi- 
ness; (2) diversity, and (3) quality of busi- 
ness. Having determined the average size and 
quality, and the average diversity of the success- 
ful types of farms in a locality, these averages 
may be used as standards for measuring the ef- 
ficiency of individual farms. Just as there are 
normal healthy men and women in a community, 
so we may expect to find normally efficient 
farms. When the physician is called upon to 
diagnose a case, the first thing he does is to com- 
pare his patient's temperature, respiration, and 
pulse with the standards of the normal man, 
thus finding a clue to the disease he is to combat. 
This method of getting at the seat of human dis- 



178 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

eases is quite similar to the proper way of diag- 
nosing a case of inefficient farming. Cato, 2,000 
years ago, when giving advice to buyers of 
farms, said, * * When you inspect the farm look to 
see how many wine-presses and storage-vats 
there are ; where there are none of these you can 
judge what the harvest is. On the other hand, 
it is not the number of implements, but what is 
done with them that counts. When you find few 
tools it is not an expensive farm to operate. 
Know, that with the farm as with the man, how- 
ever productive it may be, if it has the spending 
habit not much will be left over. ' ' This is good 
sound advice, and a practical, off-hand method 
for diagnosing the condition of the farm ; but the 
study of farm organisation has given us a more 
scientific basis for discovering and remedying 
wastes. 

Labour-Income as an Index. — Inefficient farming 
is shown when the labour-income does not come 
up to a certain standard. This standard may 
be determined by taking the labour-income of 
the average farm in a community, or some arbi- 
trary standard which would be considered fair 
wages for the work required of a farm manager. 



EFFICIENCY 179 

for instance, $500. The following table gives a 
fair idea of the labour-incomes from farming in 
widely scattered areas in the United States : 

TABLE 11 

SHOWING AVERAGE LABOUR INCOME ON FARMS 

WIDELY SCATTERED OVER THE UNITED 

STATES IN REPRESENTATIVE 

AGRICULTURAL SECTIONS i 

General 

Approximate Average 

Locality number of labour 

of farms incomes 

Three states in corn belt 500 $600 

Northern State 400 511 

Middle Atlantic State 

(Limestone valley) ... 500 790 

South Central State 

(Limestone section) . . 200 650 

North Atlantic State. . . 750 400 

North Pacific State 300 452 

Western State ( Irrigated 

region small farms). 69 417 

Average Labour Income $571 

It must be remembered that, in addition to the 
labour-income, the farmer's family gets a part 
of their living directly from the farm. This, 
according to recent investigations, amounts to 
about $421 a year; besides, he gets interest on 
his investment. In nearly all places where in- 
vestigations have been made the tenant's labour- 

1 These figures are based on the average income of owners 
and tenants given in U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmer's Bulletin No. 41, 
and other available data. 



180 FARM MANAGEMENT 

income is considerably larger than the labour- 
incomes of farmers who own their land. The 
reason for this seems to be that the owner of a 
farm has, besides the labour-income, the interest 
on his investment to live on, while the tenant 
(his capital being relatively small), has but a 
small portion of his income from interest, and is 
forced to a greater effort. Labour-incomes 
above $5000 are rare in the lists so far obtained. 
A very few have approached the ten-thousand- 
dollar mark. Many records obtained show a 
failure to make even 5' per cent, on the invest- 
ment, leaving nothing for wages. It is prob- 
able that no farmer will continue long in the 
business, however, unless he makes a fair la- 
bour-income besides the market rate of interest 
on his investment. Such farms must either fall 
into the hands of more efficient operators, or 
there must be a change to more successful types. 
To illustrate a method of discovering the weak 
places in farm organisation, we may compare 
the average of a group of successful farms with 
the average of a group of unsuccessful ones. 
The basis of the selection was that all farms 
showing a labour-income above $500 should be 



EFFICIENCTi 



181 



counted as successful ; those falling below to be 
counted as unsuccessful. Tbe average of the 
group of successful farms made a labour-income 
for the year of about $2,000. The average of 
the unsuccessful group had labour-incomes of 
minus $50 — that is, the average farmer of this 
group lacked $50 of paying 5 per cent, interest 
on his investment. Why these results ? In the 
first place the two groups are similar in type, 
each having more than 50% of receipts from 
live stock, making them live stock farms. They 
are therefore comparable. In Table 12 these 
two groups of farms are measured on the basis 
of the three main efficiency-factors, as stated 
above. 

TADLE 12 

ILLUSTRATING A METHOD OF MEASURING AND COMPARING 

THE THREE MAIN EFFICIENCY FACTORS IN THE 

FARM ORGANISATION 



Size of business 


Diversitj/ 


Quality of business 












5.2 


litl 


4i» 








nS 


Ci « 


'W « 


s-M &.>« 


•^a. 


1 


-«1 


"3 

1 






as 

ft- 


Net ret 
from I 
stock 
anima 


Value 
crops 
laboui 


Successful 


510 


$44,130 


$8680 


3.04 


2.74 


$45 


$4.8 


Unsuccessful . 


300 


29,580 


4515 


2.73 


2.72 


38 


4.5 



First, it is noticed that the average farm in 
the unsuccessful group has a smaller area and 



182 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

less capital than the average farm of the other 
group. However, the estimated value per acre 
is $15 higher, showing that the unsuccessful 
farms are carrying a heavier interest charge. 

Diversity Index Defined. — By *^ diversity*' in 
this table is meant not merely the number of im- 
portant enterprises undertaken on the farm, but 
also their equivalent in terms of exactly equal 
enterprises. Thus, if on a given farm all the 
sources of income were equal in amount, as $500 
from corn, $500 from wheat, and $500 from to- 
bacco, the diversity would be 3. If these in- 
comes were $800 from corn, $500 from wheat, 
and $200 from tobacco there would be less di- 
versity, since the incomes from wheat and to- 
bacco would not rank in value with the income 
from corn. Risks in regard to weather and in 
regard to the market are not balanced as they 
are in the first case. The slight difference in di- 
versity indicated in this table is not important in 
itself, but it suggests that the unsuccessful 
farms might increase profits by greater di- 
versity, making more intensive use of the land 
and time available for field-work. 

Comparison by Quality.— The next most signifi- 



EFFICIENCY 183 

cant difference to be noted is the lower net re- 
turns per animal-unit obtained for livestock, 
whence the greater part of the income is re- 
ceived. This would indicate clearly that the 
quality of the livestock business is low on the un- 
successful farms. There is something wrong 
with the management here, either with buying, 
selling, feeding, or natural increase. Just which 
one of these factors is weak, the table does not 
show. It would be safe to advise farmers own- 
ing these farms to examine carefully their whole 
system of livestock management. 

Quality of business, as shown in crop man- 
agement, does not reveal so significant a con- 
trast; but the successful farms stand a little 
higher in this respect, getting better returns for 
each unit of labour spent. 

These farms being of the same type, it is a 
fair measure of successful production, handling 
and marketing of crops, to compare returns per 
labour-unit on each class of farms. Table 13 
shows in detail the comparison in yield and 
prices obtained on the average farm of each 
group. It may be noted that on some crops 
higher yields and higher prices were obtained on 



184 FARM MANAGEMENT 

the unsuccessful farms ; for instance, the yield of 
tobacco was highest in the unsuccessful group, 
but a lower price was obtained for this product, 
which would tend to offset the advantage se- 
cured by a higher yield. 

TABLE 13 

SHOWING YIELD AND PRICES OF SALABLE CROPS ON SUC- 
CESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL FARMS 

Salable Yield Yield Tin- Price Price 

crops successful successful successful unsuccessful 

Corn 33 33 $0,68 per bu. $0.68 Vi 

Wheat 13.9 11 0.92 V2 per bu. 0.92 

Hay 1.1 .98 18.50 per T. 16.50 

Tobacco 1110 1181 13. per Cwt. 12. 

Effects of Cost.— The expense-bill on a farm 
may be too high, and too much work may be 
spent without compensating returns. Economy 
along these lines is important. The two groups 
of farms may be further compared on the basis 
of these factors, as shown in Table 14. 

TABLE 14 

COMPARING THE TWO GROUPS OF FARMS ON THE 
BASIS OF EXPENSE AND LABOUR EFFICIENCY 

Successful Unsuccessful 

General expenses, per acre $5.56 $6.53 

Crop acres, per man 28.00 24.30 

Crop acres, per horse 12.30 7.70 

The expenditures per acre are shown to be 
greater on the smaller and unsuccessful farms. 



EFFICIENCY 185 

There is certainly a significant contrast in the 
utilisation of power on these two groups of 
farms. In both the number of crop-acres per 
horse is lower than it is found to be on the more 
successful farms in many other good agricul- 
tural sections. Seven and seven-tenths crop- 
acres per horse is very low in comparison with 
twelve and three-tenths crop-acres per horse. 
The chances are that horses and mules on the un- 
successful group of farms are idle too much of 
the time. A great amount of waste may occur 
on this account, and thus reveal a significant 
fault in the organisation. 

Other measurements might be taken on these 
farms, revealing the weak places in the unsuc- 
cessful group. By a study of the tables, giving 
the important measurements, one can see where 
the wastes occur. Seeing these points clearly, 
possible remedies may be suggested. 

Weakness Revealed. — It seems evident that the 
general livestock farm, devoting a large portion 
of its tillable area to permanent pasture, must 
be comparatively large in size to be successful. 
The smaller farms, developing the same type, 
will tend to fail. This will be especially true on 



186 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

high-priced land. Many of the farms in the suc- 
cessful group had large areas of cheap land 
which furnished good grazing. The small 
farms might better increase the crop-area and 
decrease the acreage in permanent pasture. 
Their stock-enterprises should consist in feed- 
ing, rather than in grazing animals. 

The comparing of groups of farms, and show- 
ing relations that exist under average condi- 
tions, is of little practical account unless it is 
possible to apply the principles developed to in- 
dividual farms, enabling one to find out why the 
individual farm is less successful or more suc- 
cessful than the average farm of the same type. 
The following table' illustrates a method of 
analysing the business of an individual farm, 
and of comparing the main efficiency-factors 
with those of the average farm. This alone will 
not tell why such a farm is successful or unsuc- 
cessful, but it will give a clue to the weak places 
in the organisation, after which a more detailed 
analysis may be made, in order to locate more 
definitely the places where there is waste. 



EFFICIENCY 



187 



TABLE 15 

COMPARING INDIVIDUAL FARMS WITH THE AVERAGE 
OF THE COMMUNITY 

An 

An unsuc- The exceptionally 

cessful average successful 

Factors . farm farm farm 

Size of Business: 

Area 300 400 325 

Capital $32,712 $35,000 $29,518 

Total receipts $4,215 $7,000 $7,G18 

No. of productive la- 
bour-units 1 933 786 772 

Animal units per farm. 33 100 92 

Labour income $287 $1,237 $2,706 

Diversity : 

No. of sources of income 

above $100 14 8 12 

Per cent, of receipts from 

livestock 35 75 65 

Quality of Business : 
Net returns per animal 

unit $45 $48 $50 

Price per animal unit.. $71 $75 $70 

Other Factors: 

No. of men 12 mo. labour 4 5 4 

Labour units required 

per man 233 157 193 

Acres of crops per man. 22 30 37 

No. of horses 12 12 14 

Acres of crops per horse 8 * 13 10 

Total acres per animal 

unit 9 4 3.5 

Acres of pasture per ani- 
mal unit 6 2.6 2 



These farms are similar in type. They have 
about the same area, the unsuccessful one hav- 

1 By productive labour-units is meant the labour-units re- 
quired by crops and livestock on the farms. It does not 
include the miscellaneous labour required for the general 
farm up-keep. 



188 FARM MANAGEMENT 

ing 207 acres in pasture and the successful one 
180 acreSc The successful farm raised 8 acres 
of tobacco ; the unsuccessful one 10 acres. The 
two farms have their crop and pasture areas dis- 
tributed according to the general plan of the live- 
stock farm. Both are high in diversity, and 
should be strong in this respect. Probably the 
unsuccessful farm is giving attention to too 
many enterprises, thus overdoing diversity. 
One is struck at once with the low percentage of 
income from livestock as compared with the 
average farm and with the successful one. This 
is of special significance when the low percentage 
of livestock is compared with the large amount 
of pasture-land. 

The quality of business shows up well on the 
unsuccessful farm. If a larger amount of live- 
stock were kept on this farm, and the quality 
kept up, it ought to show an exceptionally high 
labour-income, but on this farm there are only 33 
animal-units. This accounts for the high acre- 
age per animal-unit shown in the table. The 
successful farm has 92 animal-units, nearly three 
times as many as are on the unsuccessful farm. 

This farm is stocked more heavily than the aver- 
age farm. 



EFFICIENCY 189 

The obvious remedy to be suggested for mak- 
ing the unsuccessful farm more efficient is to 
carry more livestock, 90 to 100 animal-units. 
These farms have about the same quality of 
soil and are equally fertile. In fact the un- 
successful one is valued higher. Crop-area 
might be increased to advantage and still leave 
sufficient pasturage. On the average farm 60 
per cent, of the farm area is in pasture. A 
similar distribution on this unsuccessful farm 
would allow 180 acres in pasture, instead of 207, 
leaving 27 acres to be utilised by crops. The 
successful farm has about 55 per cent, of the 
whole in pasture, somewhat below the average. 

In general it may be said that the farmer man- 
aging the unsuccessful farm tried, during this 
one year, to run a tobacco and grain type of 
farming on a farm planned for general crops 
and stock-grazing. His difficulty might be said 
to be similar to that of a man who tried to make 
a living digging post-holes with a scoop-shovel. 
A scoop-shovel works all right for shovelUng 
grain or coal, but a different type of implement 
is required for digging holes in the ground to 
advantage. Just so in the case of this farmer. 



190 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



He should either stock the farm up to its full 
capacity, or increase his crop-area so that he 
could utilise the land to advantage with crops. 

TABLE 16 

SHOWING INfETHOD OF CO^IPARTNG THE BUSINESS OF 
AN INDIVIDUAL FARMER WITH THAT OF THE 
AVERAGE AND THE BEST FARMERS OF THE 
SAME COMMUNITY, AS REGARDS LABOR IN- 
COME AND THE FACTORS THAT ENTER 
INTO FARM-MANAGEMENT DEM- 
ONSTRATIONS 



Items 



Bald- 


A ver- 


Aver- 


win 
farm 


age, 
IDS 

farms 


age, 25 

hest 

farms 


—$45 


$190 


$750 


$4,745 


$4,642 


$5,923 


51 


68 


93 


2 


2 


3 


11 


6 


8 


$715 


$763 


$1,498 


$12 


$255 


$014 


.2 


2.3 


3.4 


160 


90 


109 


10 


10.7 


13.3 


18 


19 


24 


7 


9 


11 


15 


15 


18 


27 


35.1 


49.3 


.9 


.6 


.66 


$30 


$44 


$62 



Labor income 

Capital 

Acres in crops 

Number of work horses 

Number of cows 

Total receipts (crops and stock) . . . 

Receipts from crops 

Potato acres 

Yield per acre (bushels) 

Oat acres 

Yield per acre (bushels) 

Buckwheat acres 

Yield per acre (bushels) 

Hay acres 

Yield per acre (tons) 

Receipts per cow (milk and butter 



/-ach of the farms analysed in an area is visited annually 
thereafter for a number of years to make similar analyses and 
n-adjustnients in the farm business in order that they may 
become actual demonstrations of the possibilities of increasing 
the money which a farmer secures from his business by properly 
organising it. From recent report by C. B. Smith, States Re- 
lations Service, U. S. Dept. Agr. 



EFFICIENCY 191 

The preceding table illustrates a method of 
measuring the efficiency of an individual farm. 
This method with variations to suit the locality 
is commonly used by county agents in the 
northern States in making an analysis of farms 
and comparing them with the average and the 
best of a group. In almost all sections there 
are successful farms, which may serve for 
standards of efficiency. 



CHAPTER IX 

BUSINESS METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 
APPLIED TO FARMING 

In general the farmer is presumed to be un- 
businesslike in his methods. This is interpreted 
to mean that he does not keep a record of re- 
ceipts and expenses; that he does not make an 
inventory of his resources at stated times ; and 
that he has no record showing which of the en- 
terprises on the farm are profitable and which 
are unprofitable. The banker, the dealer in com- 
modities, and the manufacturer, are exchanging 
money and commodities constantly. In order 
to avoid utter confusion in such frequent trans- 
fers it is absolutely necessary to keep a record of 
them. Monthly or yearly statements showing 
the financial relation between debtor and credi- 
tor must be issued, and settlements made. 
While the farmer receives bills showing what he 
owes his creditors, his business seldom requires 
him to issue statements calling for settlement of 
debts; as a rule, only such records are kept as 

192 



BUSINESS METHODS 193 

seem necessary, as, especially, when several per- 
sons are interested in the division of profits 
from a farm. 

Notwithstanding this lack the business-status 
of a farm is usually pretty well known and items 
of receipts and expense are kept in mind pretty 
accurately, so that if definite questions are asked 
relative to the various items and factors enter- 
ing into the farm organisation and business an 
approximately accurate record may be obtained, 
for at least a year. In this way most of the data 
relating to farm-management have been ob- 
tained. 

Utility of Records.— The keeping of certain 
records would undoubtedly be of great value on 
every farm. Certain records might be kept for 
a definite period, in order to get the information 
wanted when other records might be begun. 
Probably no farmer would be repaid by keep- 
ing complete records of business transactions. 
When, however, the keeping of records becomes 
a habit the time required is insignificant. By 
actual experiment in keeping simple, but quite 
extensive farm-records, the work was found to 
require but about five minutes a day. 



194 



FAEM MANAGEMENT 



TABLE 17 

A SIMPLE METHOD OF KEEPING A RECORD OF RE- 
CEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES 



1911 




Received 


Paid Out 


July 17 
22 


W. E. Pike for threshing: 
118 bus. of \vheat@5^ and 
40 bus. of oats@3^ 

Butter, 20 lbs.@25^; eggs, 4 
doz.@12i/.^ 


$5 
1 


50 
97 


$7 

1 
6 


13 




Tomatoes, 20(i a dozen, corn 
I'IYK^ a dozen 

Clover seed, 7 lbs.@$10 per , 
bu 


43 




Nuts, bolts, plough point, 
etc 


66 



This form keeps a record or journal of items of expenses 
and receipts. It may, as in this record kept by a farmer, show 
the price of things sold and rate of payment for services. If 
a farmer is interested simply in the record of receipts and 
expenditures, this is the most simple form. 

Every farmer should keep a simple record of 
receipts and expenditures, besides the account 
with his bank. The foregoing record of receipts 
and expenditures for a month on a farm shows a 
good form for keeping such records. Such a 
record enables a farmer to look up any trans- 
action and to know when it occurred. At the 
end of the year he is able to calculate quickly the 
sum of his receipts and of his expenses. If, be- 
sides this, he had inveiitories taken at the begin- 



BUSINESS METHODS 



195 



ning of the farm's business-year, and again at 
the end of the year, the income could be readily 
determined. The following example of such in- 
ventories shows how simple the records and de- 
terminations may be. 

TABLE 18 
SHOWING AN INVENTORY ON A FARM 



Item 



March 1, 
1'JI3 



March i, 



Value of farm (including buildings) . . 
Implements and other small equipment 

Work horses, three 

Hogs: 

3 BOWS and 15 pigs 

4 sows and 20 pigs 

Cows : 

5 cows and 4 calves 

5 cows and 3 calves 

Sheep : 9 

Chickens : 

6 dozen 

8 dozen 

Growing crops (labour and material) . 

Feed and supplies 

Cash on hand and in bank, notes, etc. . . 

Total resources 

Notes and bills to be paid 



$2500 
402 
375 

135 



$2500 
520 
376 



150 



Net value of inventory- 
Gain for the year 



310 


• • • 


• • . 


300 


36 


36 


30 






40 


100 


150 


175 


115 


500 


925 


$4623 


$5111 


65 




$4558 


$5111 


553 





$5111 



$5111 



A statement such as this shows what the farm has earned 
during the year. The best time to make an inventory is 
^vhen the crops and other products are mostly sold, or when 
there is the least amount of stuff on hand the value of which 
needs to be estimated. 



196 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



Many farmers as well as others find it con- 
venient and sometimes necessary to keep a cash- 
account, that is, a record of cash received and 
expended. A cash-account enables one who is 
responsible for a certain amount of cash re- 
ceived to determine quickly at any time the 
amount on hand, when, by making a balance, he 
can show whether the cash in hand, actually 
counted corresponds with the balance shown by 
the difference between the cash received and that 
spent. It is an excellent plan for children on 
the farm or elsewhere to be trained to account 
for cash received in this way. The following 
form illustrates the method of keeping such ac- 
counts. 

TABLE 19 
SHOWING FORM FOR SIMPLE CASH ACCOUNT 



19U 




Cash Received 


Cash Spent 




{Dr.) 


iCr.) 


Jan. 4 


Drew on deposit in 












bank 


$50 


00 






15 


Paid Henry wages. 
Oil for engine 






$10 


00 
50 


20 


Repairs for binder 






1 


40 


24 


One ton cotton seed 












meal 


^ ^ 


, ^ 


30 


00 


25 


Casli for calf (6 












wks, old ) 


10 


00 






27 


Deposited in bank 






10 


00 



BUSINESS METHODS 



197 



1914 




Cash Received 
(Dr.) 


Cash spent 
iCr.) 


Feb. 1 


Balance cash in 
hand 


. . 


. . 


8 


10 






$60 


00 


$60 


00 




Cash in hand 


$8 


10 







This form of account enables one to keep track of the 
cash carried around in the pocket or kept in the house. A 
balance may be made at any time to ascertain whether all 
receipts and expenditures have been accounted for, and no 
money lost. The stubs of the bank-checkbook will show the 
balance in the bank. The two accounts together will tell at 
any time just how much cash is available. 



Keeping Accounts with Crops. — Should the 
farmer wish to know what different classes of 
expenditures on the farm were costing he could 
group the items of expense from the daily record 
into such classes as repairs, labour-expenses, 
fertiliser-expenses, etc. The same thing could 
be done with receipts. 

Sometimes it is found convenient to keep an 
account with a labourer on the farm, or with 
some other person with whom business dealings 
have been developed. In such cases the person 
concerned is frequently receiving things of 
value, and at the same time may be giving his 



198 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



labour, or other things, or services, which have 
value. Some convenient and accurate method 
is needed of determining at any time just what 
settlement should be made between the parties 
concerned, and the following form is commonly 
used for that purpose. 

TABLE 20 
AN ACCOUNT WITH THE HIRED MAN 



1914 


Charges 
Item 




1914 


Credits 
Item 




Mar. 10 
" 20 

•• 25 
" 31 


Advanced cash 
on wages .... 

5 bu. corn,® 
650, to apply 
on wages . , . 

10 lbs. meat, ad- 
vanced on 
wages, @ 10(5 
per lb 

Paid bal. due on 
wages 


$5.00 
3.25 

1.00 
17.50 


Mar. 15 
•♦ 25 


Extra service. 

Use of horse 
one day,@ 
75<5 

20 days labour 
at $1.25 per 
day 


$1.00 

.75 

25.00 




$26.75 


$26.75 



In this case a settlement was made at the end of the 
month, when $17.50 was due the hand on wages, which the 
farmer either paid in cash or by check. Such accounts may 
be kept on a card, in a book or on a ruled slip of paper. 

This same form of accounting may be used to 
show the profitableness or unprofitableness of 
any enterprise on the farm, such as a corn-crop, 
a dairy, sheep, or poultry enterprise. The en- 



BUSINESS METHODS 

TABLE 21 
AN ACCOUNT WITH A 20-ACRE FIELD OF CORN 



199 



1914 


Charges 
Item 


Am't. 


1914 


Credits 
Item 


Am't. 


Feb. 20 


Seed 21/^ bu.@ 
$1.00 

Rent of land 
$5 per acre. 

Labour, 60 
days(a)$1.50 

Horse work, 
100 days® 
$1.00 

Use of equip- 
ment 

Fertiliser 

charge .... 

Total charges 
Gain 


$2.50 

100.00 

90.00 

100.00 
25.00 
10.00 


Dec. 4 
June 5 


Sold 320®55^.. 

Sold 500@60{J.. 

Fed stock balance. 
180 bu. valued 
@6O0 

Total credits . 


$176 
800 

108 








327.50 
256.50 


$584 




$584.00 





This form of accounting shows what the crop is yielding in 
the way of direct net income. In the farm organisation some 
crops may indirectly increase the total income, but this will 
not appear in such an account as this. 

terprise is credited with what it yields in the 
way of income to the farm, and charged with all 
expenses, such as labour, machinery, fertiliser, 
rent, etc. When a part or all of a certain crop 
is fed to stock, or transformed into some other 
product, an account is opened between the crop 
and the stock to which it may be fed, or with the 
product into which it may be transferred. 
While cost-accounting of this kind is often 
of value to the farmer who may find it im- 



200 FARM MANAGEMENT 

portant to measure the relative profitableness of 
each venture on the farm, the results obtained 
may be very misleading unless rightly inter- 
preted. It must always be taken into account 
that the enterprises on a farm are related to 
each other as parts of a system. They have 
been selected consciously or unconsciously to 
constitute a farm organisation, and from this 
point of view the net profit on any single enter- 
prise will not alone measure the importance of 
such enterprise as a part of the organisation. 
Take, as an illustration, the feeding of steers on 
a farm in the South-central States, which the 
writer has had occasion to study. The basic 
crop-rotation on the farm is corn, wheat and 
clover. As a rule the clover occupies the field 
alone one year, and is then turned under for a 
corn-crop. The corn is fed to steers which are 
usually bought in a neighbouring State. An ac- 
count with the steers, charging them with the 
corn and other feed at market prices, shows but 
a slight profit. The operator of the farm, how- 
ever, makes a satisfactory labour-income, and 
he is probably correct in regarding the steer- 
feeding enterprise in relation to the farm-organ- 



BUSINESS METHODS 201 

isation as a profitable enterprise. The average 
production of corn on this farm is about 50 
bushels an acre, nearly 100 per cent, above the 
average for the region. The feeding of steers 
fits in well with such a rotation, is an impor- 
tant factor in the distribution of labour, and the 
system as a whole has increased greatly the 
capacity of the soil to produce large yields of 
corn, wheat and clover. No other system has 
been developed in that part of the country to 
produce similar results. 

Indirect Benefits. — Over a large area of good 
agricultural land in the Eastern and South-cen- 
tral States, wheat has held for many years, and 
still holds, an important place in the crop-rota- 
tion, while the farmers themselves have known 
and are advised through agricultural literature 
that the crop considered by itself is not profit- 
able. The operators of the farms have discov- 
ered, however, no other crop-enterprise more 
profitable from the point of view of the farm- 
organisation as a whole. These facts show that 
single enterprises are so related to the organisa- 
tion as a whole that the measure of the net in- 
come from each determines only partly its ef- 



202 FARM MANAGEMENT 

ficiency in the combination of enterprises. 
Where the corn-crop or tobacco-crop has had a 
well-prepared seed-bed, and has been thor- 
oughly cultivated, thus eliminating weeds, con- 
serving moisture, and leaving the land in a good 
physical and sanitary condition, the wheat-crop 
that follows has been benefited. The fertiliser 
sown with the wheat-crop benefits the clover, 
grass, and corn which follow. Manure spread 
on the pasture-field or meadow benefits not only 
the grass and clover, but by stimulating the 
growth of these crops supplies more roots to the 
soil and more vegetation to turn under, thus in- 
creasing the productive capacity of the land. 
The value of a crop then is partly its function 
in making efficient and profitable the whole or- 
ganisation. 

It has already been shown how livestock on 
most farms is profitable because it utilises prod- 
ucts that otherwise would be largely wasted. 
On most farms straw and corn-stover would, 
as a rule, have little value unless utilised by 
stock. 

On a certain large farm it was considered im- 
portant to have a record of the distribution of 



BUSINESS METHODS 



203 



labour on various crops, so the following form 
was worked out and found to be practical : 

TABLE 22 
DAILY LABOUR RECORD SHEET FOR A FARM 
Date: September 14. 1914. 



Operation 


Field 

No. 


Crop 


Man 
Hrs. 


Team 
Hrs. 


En- 
gine 
Hrs. 


Crew 


Remarks 

on 
weathers 

etc. 


Disking .... 
Harrowing 
Drilling .... 
Cutting 

sprouts . . 
Repairing 

drill 

Miscellaneous 


2 
9 
9 

19 


Barley 
<( 

Pasture 

1 


8 

4 

10 

90 

10 
5 


28 
12 
40 




2-7 
1-3 
1-4 

9-0 

2-0 
1-0 


Clear 



A record like the above is made for each work day of the 
year by the manager of the crop-enterprises. The manager 
of the stock makes a similar record. The bookkeeper may 
occasionally enter these labour charges in the accounts with 
fields or crops. The figures in the column under "crew" 
means that two men and seven horses, etc., were engaged in 
discing. 

The farmer should not attempt to keep ac- 
counts without some definite end in view, and 
without knowing some use he can make of them, 
for just the same reason that he should not 
waste his time in doing any other kind of un- 
necessary work. 

Returns on Investment.— The farmer is neces- 
sarily capitalist, labourer, and manager com- 



204 FARM MANAGEMENT 

bined. When the size of his business is large 
capital becomes a very important factor. Men 
are presumed to be guided by business prin- 
ciples and it is a fundamental economic prin- 
ciple that capital seeks investment in such 
enterprises as are most profitable, considering 
risk, the convenience and cost of realising cash 
and other factors recognised as important in 
business. In three States ^ of the corn-belt, the 
average rate of interest which 247 landlords re- 
ceived on average capital of $25,210 was 3.5 per 
cent. On a selected list of about 200 farms in 
an exceptionally good agricultural region the 
average farm, after allowing $800 for manager 's 
services paid 5.3 per cent, on an investment of 
about $40,000. That is, if this farm were owned 
by a corporation issuing stock, the manager 
could have been paid $800 and 5.3 per cent, divi- 
dend declared. This probably represents about 
what the best general farms are doing. 

During the past twenty years, both in the corn- 
belt and in other good agricultural districts, the 
value of land has much more than doubled in 
value. This fact would naturally cause these 

1 Farmers' Bulletin U. S. Dept, of Agriculture 117, p. 12. 



BUSINESS METHODS 205 

lands to have a ** speculative*' value — that is, a 
value based on the expectation that if a farm is 
purchased it will continue to advance in value 
per acre. When such conditions exist, it would 
be expected that interest calculated on the esti- 
mated value of the investment would be low in 
comparison with such investments as ordinary 
farm-mortgage loans. 

Advantages of Ownership. — There is a point 
where the average farmer will be forced off 
his farm through economic necessity. This will 
be when his labour combined with his capital will 
not support him and his family. Thirty thou- 
sand dollars invested in a farm business yield- 
ing 5 per cent, will keep a large family in luxury 
compared with a similar income in the city, ow- 
ing to the addition of that part of the living 
which comes directly from the farm. Probably 
no other form of investment could be made as 
secure and in the long run as profitable. Most 
normally constituted persons doubtless feel in- 
stinctively the risk of the speculative occupa- 
tions, and really prefer to use their money in 
productive enterprises which do not offer 
chances to win large fortunes, but which yield 



206 FARM MANAGEMENT 

such profits as are reliable, and which al- 
low the feeling that a man has earned his money 
through some worthy achievement rather than 
through luck or chance. 

Ownership of land seems to make most per- 
sons feel more secure, and gives them a sense of 
dignity and importance that no other form of 
investment gives. This is not wholly a matter 
of imagination. The individual is simply re- 
sponding to the community or race feeling. 
The man who owns real estate is generally be- 
lieved to be a more stable and reliable citizen. 
He feels stronger in his influence as a citizen, 
and the fact that this condition exists really 
strengthens his influence and his credit. All 
such factors have to be taken into account in the 
attempt to account for the farmers' business 
sense in dealing with capital. These facts must 
also be taken into account when measuring the 
success of the farmer. A farmer is certainly 
not successful in his business if he fails to earn 
on his investment what he could get by investing 
in such securities as government bonds, besides 
wages commensurate with his abilities. Every 
man owes it to the community which furnishes 



BUSINESS METHODS 207 

him his opportunities, and to the nation pro- 
tecting him, to give the best services possible, 
whether it be in farming or in any other honour- 
able occupation, and it is due him to be paid ac- 
cording to what he may be able to achieve. 

Public Spirit. — The investment of money in 
public improvements, and in enterprises that 
only indirectly bring profit to the individual 
carrying on a business, is a business principle 
which farmers as a class are slow to grasp. 
The discussion of good roads, farmers' insur- 
ance, farmers' shipping associations, farm 
bureaus, and co-operative undertakings of vari- 
ous kinds, belongs primarily to the field of 
rural economics, but these institutions have a 
close relation to the successful operation of a 
farm. Money invested to support them, and 
time spent in developing and maintaining them, 
can be shown in many instances to increase the 
profits in farming. 

In a locality where the growing of Irish pota- 
toes is the basis of farm-organisation, two well 
organised produce exchanges are organised and 
supported by farmers. One of these exchanges 
has existed for many years, and is well known 



208 FARM MANAGEMENT 

over a large part of the United States. The 
climate and soil of this region are not specially 
adapted to growing Irish potatoes — in fact many 
places in the same State have better physical ad- 
vantages ; but owing to the fact that an efficient 
business organisation has been developed to 
handle the marketing of potatoes the farmers 
find this crop on the whole the most profitable of 
farm enterprises. 

It is a fundamental principle in business, and 
a principle adhered to by all successful business 
men, to buy the best material and equipment 
used in the business at as small cost as possible ; 
likewise, to pay only for actual services ren- 
dered. On the basis of such principles the 
farmer is justified in patronising only such in- 
stitutions as render him profitable service. It 
is his duty as a citizen to help organise the busi- 
ness mechanism of his community on the basis 
of economy. The farmer cannot be both a suc- 
cessful farmer and banker, hardware-man and 
grocery-man but he may under certain condi- 
tions wisely and profitably invest his money 
with others in these enterprises, and have a hand 
in organising them in a way to serve the com- 



BUSINESS METHODS 209 

munity to best advantage. As long as the 
farmer confines his interests to his own indi- 
vidual farm there is little hope that he can claim 
a just share in the distribution of wealth, or be 
trained to profit by advantages in co-operation. 
In nearly all the most prosperous farming com- 
munities in the United States farmers are in- 
vesting their money in such local institutions, 
and in this way are becoming a factor in the re- 
organisation of business on the basis of public 
economy. 



CHAPTER X 
FARM ADMINISTRATION 

Fabming is usually regarded as a business in 
which carefully worked out plans are of little 
practical value. It is the general opinion also 
that the farmer, more than any other producer, 
follows the rules and practices of his father, 
with little consideration of scientific principles. 
These contradictory ideas are in reality both 
based on the same fundamental truth. The fact 
that a majority of farmers follow out, year after 
year, a plan developed by their ancestors, and 
even have to be forced to follow new methods by 
dire necessity, would seem to show that farming 
more than any other line of production depends 
upon planning and calculation. 

Farm administration deals specially with the 
practical application of the principles of farm 
organisation to the details of farming. 

Work and Weather. — Farming according to a 
plan or schedule, does not mean that in any one 

210 



FARM ADMINISTRATION 211 

year the work planned for a certain season may 
be done in a definite order, or on the particular 
day indicated by the plan. If a plan were made 
out with such intention it would be very faulty 
indeed. A farm-plan should show the amount 
of work and the season in which such work 
should normally be done. Only in a general 
way can it be predicted what the character of 
the days followed in the period will be. A 
weather-chart will show whether they will be 
normally wet or dry, cold or hot. We can pre- 
dict how long the working-hours may be. We 
know that certain operations must come within 
the period or not be done at all. Nature has de- 
termined the seasons, and the adaptation of 
farm-enterprises to them. It is the business of 
farm management to find out how these enter- 
prises are related to the seasons, so that they 
may be combined in such a way as to use the 
time to best advantage. Working to a plan im- 
plies a certain amount of control of conditions. 
Too many farmers are passive in their attitude 
toward natural forces and in their dealings with 
them. Up-to-date methods in all lines of work 
are based primarily on the presumption of the 



212 FARM MANAaEMENT 

control of natural forces. Farming, to be suc- 
cessful, must be done with the same presumption 
and the same confidence. 

The farmer, who is *^ getting on," will rarely 
blame the failure of crop-yields entirely on the 
weather, or fret much about the possibilities of 
what it may be in the future. He will be found 
busy doing the work demanded by the various 
enterprises as they develop in season. Com- 
plete and workable plans for the operation of a 
farm provide for accident and abnormal states 
of the weather. The number of operations re- 
quired under normal conditions may be reduced 
or increased according to the condition of the 
soil or state of the weather. Certain operations 
are done only when the soil conditions are ab- 
normal. Thus farmers, for certain crops, roll 
the land only to break clods or to bring moisture 
to the surface by capillarity to be available for 
seed planted or for shallow rooted plants. 
Heavy clay soils can safely be ploughed only 
when the soil is well drained or when it has 
a chance to freeze and thus avoid the damage 
that may result when wet. The farmer who is 
accustomed to wait for a favourable season in 



FARM ADMINISTRATION 213 

which to plant a crop, or until the moon is in the 
increasing or decreasing phase, is likely to get 
behind in his work. Often the whole business 
for the year is completely disorganised. The 
rotation-plan is thrown out of gear, and the 
year's operations result in disaster. 

The farmer, however, who is systematic in his 
work, who has measured the amount of work his 
organisation requires and has planned ahead 
for emergencies is pretty sure to come out ahead 
in the game of farming during the most unfav- 
ourable year. 

In order to illustrate how the farm work for a 
year or more in advance may be planned and 
stated in a more or less definite form, two work- 
schedules follow. The work schedule for a gen- 
eral farm shows the periods within which the 
operations are usually done. The available 
days for work wiU vary with the time of year. 
The farmer will probably not be able to do the 
work just as it is scheduled since the weather 
usually varies a great deal from the normal and 
other things interfere also, but such a schedule 
states the farm problem for the year in a way 
that will help greatly in the practical organisa- 



214 



FARM MANAGEMENT 







Seeding (1 yr.) 

Clipping 
Stacking 




< 

o 




Harrowing 

Seeding 
Harrowing 

Binding 

Ploughing 
Ploughing 


•d 

V 

(^ o 

& 01 




Harrowing 

Binding 
Hauling 

Harrowing 
Seeding 


o o 

o «c> 


c 


Harrowing 

Disking 

Harrowing 

Disking 

Harrowing 

Planting 

Harrowing 

Cultivating 

do 

do 

Cutting 
Stacking 

Ploughing 


CO 

CO 


&3g 


QOOOOOOt-ieOOOOrHrHi-tQWINinOMCCOOCOO 


o 

1H 




«i«?«>;o;c«oo-*'*w<N'<*-*">«H'<j<ow«c-*«ON'^<D«o<c«oeo 


... 

M 

to 


o 






CO 

T-l 


es 

V 


Day a 

avail' 
able 


i-i r-l iH »-i 


00 






NTt<»-l eOt-O OCCiHOrlO ei3i-40rH «0 P5 «5 O ^ i-i O 
r-IC\lC<5Tl<i-ii-ieCO5C^JOI00r-i(NeOaiClCOC^JCCO5r-lCaC^COM00C<5 

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
r-(eO'OT-UO^OOi-lOt-l'r)<i-lt-iDlrlOT)<r-lrH»-lOt-'«)'t-»-nniH 








March 
April 

May 

June 

July 
Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 
Nov. 


1 

1 



FARM ADMINISTRATION 215 

tion of the work in hand and in meeting new 
problems as they turn up. Oftentimes by put- 
ting down in concrete form the work that must' 
be done, one is enabled to see profitable changes 
to be made. In the case of the general farm 
there are 44 available days which will probably 
not be needed in the field work. The farmer 
might wish to plan to make profitable use of this 
time. 

The work schedule for a strawberry enter- 
prise shown below is meant to show the order 
of the operations to be performed, the seasons 
for doing them, various crews used, imple- 
ments, and the cost in days' work for men and 
teams. Such a schedule would be valuable not 
only for the manager of such an enterprise but 
for any one thinking of going into the business 
of raising strawberries. 

A certain farmer was once advised by his en- 
terprising neighbour to begin to put up his ice 
for the summer. The season was getting late 
and on account of an abnormally mild winter the 
ice was not yet in an ideal condition to put up. 
The farmer replied that if the Lord intended 
that he should have ice for the summer He would 



216 



FAEM MANAGEMENT 



TABLE 17 

WORK SCHEDULE FOR OPERATING A STRAWBERRY 

FIELD FROM THE PLANTING TO THE END OF THE 

PERIOD DURING WHICH THE PLANTS HOLD 

THE GROUND— IN A SOUTH CENTRAL STATE 

FIRST YEAR 



Operation 



Manure . 
Break . . 
Re-break 
Disk . . . 
Harrow . 
Lay oflF . 
Plant . . . 
Cultivate 
Hoe . . . . 



Season 



Crew 

and 

duty 1 



Oct. 1-Dec. 30 1-2- .5 



Nov. 1-Dec. 30 
Nov. 15-Apr. 30 



Apr. 15-Sept. 
May 1-Oct. 



1 
10 



1-3-1.5 

1-3-1.5 

1-3-4. 

1-3-8. 

1-2-5. 

4-0-1.2 

1-2-5. 

1-0- .25 



No. of 
opera- 
tions 



1 
1 
1 
2 
2 
1 
12 
4 



2.00 
0.66 
0.66 
0.25 
0.24 
0.40 
3.33 
2.40 
16.00 



Total units 25.94 



^Sb 



4.00 
1.98 
1.98 
0.75 
0.72 
0.80 

.0 
4.80 

.0 

15.03 



SECOND YEAB 

Mulch Feb. 1-Apr. 1. 2-2-2. 1 1.00 1.00 

Pick Mayl5-Junel0 1-0- .03 .. 32.00 .0 

Pack and 

grade ... " 1-0- .32 . . 3.12 .0 

Nail boxes.. " 1-0- .64 .. 1.56 .0 

Haul " 1-2- .64 .. 1.56 3.12 

Bar off June 15-July 10 1-1-3. 1 0.33 0.33 

Cross har- 
row June 20- July 15 1-2-8. 4 .48 .96 

Cultivate ..July 1-Oct. 10 1-2-5. 15 3.00 6.00 

Hoe July 15-Oct. 15 1-0- .25 4 16.00 0.00 

Total units 50.05 11.41 



The second year's operations are duplicated the following 
year, while the plants hold the ground 3 to 4 years. 

1 1-2— .5 means a crew of one man and two horses do .5 acres 
per day. The rate of picking is based on 160 crates per acre. 



FARM ADMINISTRATION 217 

see that it was in the right condition to put up. 
This is the attitude of mind of thousands of 
farmers passively submitting to adverse con- 
ditions. 

The Farm Operator.— The farm operator is the 
person who runs the farm. Usually he is both 
the organiser and administrator of the business. 
The operator may rent the farm or own it. The 
term landlord is used to indicate the relation be- 
tween the owner of a farm and the person who 
rents it. In most cases of renting land the land- 
lord specifies certain conditions relative to the 
plan according to which the farm is to be oper- 
ated. The owner of the land should not want 
his land to lose in productive capacity and value 
of general equipment such as fences, drains, 
buildings, etc. He may then specify that a cer- 
tain rotation shall be followed, that a certain 
amount of manure, fertiliser, or lime, shall be 
applied at stated times, preceding or following 
certain crops. In this way the landlord assists 
in planning the farm organisation, but leaves the 
task of administration to the one who rents 
it. 

In most farming districts of the Northern 



218 FARM MANAGEMENT 

States the renter or tenant on a farm is a farm 
operator. He rents the land for a year or a 
term of years, and pays cash or share-rent. He 
usually furnishes the entire working capital, 
and operates it in the same manner as if he 
owned it. In the South-central and more south- 
erly States there has developed a different con- 
dition relative to renting land, managing labour 
and operating the farms. These conditions 
have been pointed out and explained in Chap- 
ter I. 

Operator and Labourer. — Cotton and tobacco 
are important crops in that region and require 
special attention during a large part of the year. 
Much of the labour connected with these crops 
can be done by women and children. Negroes 
do most of the labour on cotton and tobacco 
there, so that it has come about that a distinct 
labouring-class exists, while in most other parts 
of the United States no distinct agricultural 
labouring-class has developed. 

In cotton and tobacco districts the farm oper- 
ator adjusts his organisation to the conditions 
that exist. Many of the labourers upon whom 
he depends to work the land live on his farms. 



FARM ADMINISTRATION 219 

The more prosperous of them may own a single 
work animal or a team. Some own a small area 
of land which they till as a garden or small farm. 
These people make their living by hiring out to 
farm operators as regular or extra labourers, or 
they may be employed to * * crop ' * a small area of 
land. In such cases the operator may furnish 
aU or only part of the equipment. In some cases 
the one who does the cropping furnishes the en- 
tire equipment, in which case he more nearly 
approaches to the status of a tenant in the 
Northern States. Even in this case he seldom 
acquires control of the land for a year or term of 
years. His function is simply to **make'' the 
crop on a specified piece of land, and when such 
crop is removed the land is utilised by the oper- 
ator in the same manner as if he had raised the 
crop himself. These are known as * * croppers ' * 
or ^^ share-tenants, *' or in some localities, 
** renters." As a rule the renter is one who is 
a farm operator, who organises and operates an 
entire farm-plant for a year or more. 

These distinctions are made and discussed in 
order to avoid confusion in using the term 
* ^ farm operator ' ' as defined in two different sec- 



i 



220 FARM MANAGEMENT 

tions of our country, where labour conditions 
are radically different. 

It is to the advantage of operators in the 
South to keep the labourers and share-tenants 
satisfied, so that they will stay on the farms and 
be available to render such services as are 
needed. The best way to secure this condition 
is to give the labourer a chance to take some re- 
sponsibility and share in the profits of the farm, 
giving him an opportunity to rise above the 
stage of a regular labourer, and to become 
owner of property. 

The Labour Problem on the Farm. — There is gen- 
eral complaint among farmers that labour is 
scarce and inefficient. In many instances the 
complaint is justified; in others it is simply an 
excuse for inefficiency in ability to organise and 
direct labour-forces properly. Often those who 
employ people to work for them follow the prin- 
ciple of paying as small wages as possible, yet 
think themselves unfairly treated if the quantity 
of work is not up to standard. 

Labour cannot be satisfactorily employed un- 
less it is done on the basis of justice. The em- 
ployer of labour should know what a standard 



FABM ADMINISTRATION 221 

day's work in all farm operations is. To re- 
quire more of labourers is unjust, unless, in 
special circumstances, a given piece of work 
must be completed in order to prevent serious 
loss. The farmer who has demonstrated his in- 
tention to deal justly with men will, as a rule, 
find men willing to put in extra time in case of 
necessity. Labourers who do not show the 
right spirit in such circumstances should not be 
employed longer than is necessary. 

Farm labourers often work inefficiently be- 
cause their standard is low, and because they 
have not been taught to use tools in an efficient 
way. For this reason the most successful 
farmers work with their men as much as pos- 
sible, to set the standard, and to show them how 
the work may be done in the best way with least 
effort. The writer has in mind a farmer who 
doubled the efficiency of his labour-force in set- 
ting posts and laying drain-tile simply through 
demonstrating, by means of his own labour, that 
a given amount of work could be done with less 
muscular effort in half the time they were ac- 
customed to use. When these men were able to 
achieve the same results he raised their wages. 



222 FARM MANAGEMENT 

In some cases inefficiency in working is due to 
improper nourisliment. When farm labourers 
are given their board in addition to wages, the 
employer is treating them unjustly and unwisely 
from the standpoint of his own interests if he 
does not provide nourishing and well-cooked 
food. He also is not doing his duty if he is not 
solicitous for their comfort and welfare in other 
ways. 

So far as the writer knows no attempt has 
been made to measure the advantages derived 
from the just and humane treatment of farm la- 
bourers, but experience and observation on 
many farms in various localities has convinced 
him that the farmers applying the principles 
stated have little difficulty in solving labour- 
problems. They rarely complain of the scarcity 
of labour or of its inefficiency. 

The man who works for wages wants his pay 
promptly and almost always frequently. The 
employer who can pay his hands in cash 
promptly, and when they want it, will find his 
ability to command labour greatly increased. 

Extra Labour. — Many types of farming require 
a large amount of labour at certain seasons of 



FAEM ADMINISTRATION 223 

the year while at other seasons the amount re- 
quired is very small. The labour required for 
short periods is, in most types of farming, re- 
garded as extra labour. In the type of farming 
most common in the United States extra labour 
may be required in haying, wheat-harvesting, 
threshing, and corn-harvesting. Corn-husking, 
however, in most localities, can be extended over 
a comparatively long period of time, so that on 
the smaller farms extra labour may be dispensed 
with. Where it is customary to cut the corn 
and put it in shock, the cutting period is short, 
and the work is mostly done by hand, so that 
much extra labour is required. Where wheat 
raising is a large and important farm enter- 
prise the employment of extra labour is an im- 
portant and often serious problem. The fact, 
however, that the ripening of crops varies with 
latitude and altitude and the fact that most im- 
portant crops are distributed over a large geo- 
graphical area causes the labour for harvesting 
such crops to be distributed over a long period 
of time. Thus wheat harvesting, which begins 
in southern Texas about June, lasts until Sep- 
tember 1 in the region of Montana and North 



224 FARM MANAGEMENT 

Dakota. This enables a force of wheat har- 
vesters to utilise a large part of the growing 
season by moving north and into higher alti- 
tudes as the ripening of grain proceeds. Cot- 
ton and tobacco are not distributed over such a 
large geographical area so that the harvesting 
of these crops must be done largely by local 
labour. 

Standard Wages.— Where corn is cut, put in 
shock and husked, the work is commonly paid 
for by the shock, or the husking may often be 
paid for by the bushel. Thus, in a certain lo- 
cality the average price paid for cutting corn, 
16 hills square, is 12i/^ cents per shock, and 3 
cents per bushel for husking. In the corn-belt 
husking and putting corn in the crib is usually 
done for 3 cents to 5 cents per bushel. In a dis- 
trict where Irish potatoes is the principal crop, 
picking, grading, and putting the potatoes in the 
barrel ready to load on a wagon, is done for 8 
cents to 15 cents per barrel of 11 pecks, the 
rate any year depending on the yield of the 
crop. In 1913 the prices averaged about 10 
cents a barrel for potatoes yielding approxi- 
mately 40 barrels an acre. 



FAEM ADMINISTRATION 225 

Such an operation as picking and packing 
strawberries for the market is paid for at stand- 
ard rates per unit of work accomplished. Thus, 
in a well known strawberry region these rates 
were in 1913 : 

Picking 42 cents per crate 

Packing 3 

Nailing up crates 1.5 " " " 

Market Association Costs 5.5 " " " 

Large numbers of pickers have to be employed 
to do the work when demanded. Men who look 
up and hire the pickers were paid 50 cents for 
each picker employed. 

In localities where some crop such as wheat 
is the main enterprise — a crop that requires at- 
tention only during short seasons in the year — 
standard prices develop for doing all the oper- 
ations. 

In one such locality the prices for raising the 
crop were in 1904-06 : 

Ploughing $1.50 per acre 

Disking 50 " 

Harrowing 15 " 

Drilling 50 " 

Heading and stacking 1.25 " 

Threshing, 6^ per bu. (15 bu, crop) 90 " 

Hauling 10 miles, 5^ per mile (15 bu. crop) 75 " 

Total Labour Cost $5.55 " " 

These standard prices will vary from year to 



226 FARM MANAGEMENT 

year in the same locality, and will be different 
for different localities. 

Relations with a Bank. — Many farmers are at a 
great disadvantage in operating the farm be- 
cause of lack of ready money, or the ability to 
get it promptly on reasonable terms and in 
proper amounts. The business man who is re- 
ceiving and paying out money constantly finds 
the bank a most essential institution for service. 
The bank finds such a customer profitable and 
reliable, because, by watching his daily balances, 
he keeps in touch with the man's operations, 
knows when his credit is weak, and when strong. 
As a rule, in general farming, there are not 
more than one or two seasons in the year when 
the farmer deposits money in the bank. During 
the long intervals between, the banker is not 
much in touch with the farmer's business. He 
does not know how well he is operating his farm, 
caring for his stock, or investing his money. 
For this reason it is more difficult for the aver- 
age farmer to establish credit with banks than 
it is for the average business man. 

The operator of a farm may overcome this 
difficulty to a large extent by organising and 



FAEM ADMINISTEATION 227 

operating his farm according to standard and 
reliable methods, and by cultivating a confiden- 
tial relationship with some reliable banker. In 
this way the banker may become a useful and 
safe adviser, besides being ready to furnish 
credit when needed. 

In some localities it may be wise for farmers 
to form associations for the purpose of strength- 
ening individual credit. 

The average amount of cash necessary to be 
kept on hand, or be accessible, varies much 
with the size of the farm business and with the 
type of farming. Dairy farms, and the small 
family farms organised with about an equal 
amount of crop and stock enterprises, require 
less than do either large grain farms or large 
stock farms. The large grain farm or orchard 
requires a large amount of cash on hand to pay 
extra labour-bills for threshing, materials for 
packing, etc. 

In general, diversified farming reduces the 
amount of cash that must be kept on hand or 
made accessible. When such single enterprises 
as orcharding are depended on there may be 
periods of one, two, or three years, when there 



228 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

is little if any income ; yet the operations must 
go on with the same detail and care if the enter- 
prise is to be profitable through a series of 
years. 

"Cheap" Farms.— Many persons, especially 
those who know but little about the details of 
farming, and who have not been trained to cal- 
culate the costs of building up land and main- 
taining fertility, are likely to be misled and dis- 
appointed in buying cheap farms. When farms 
were cheap only because of inaccessibility to 
market and general pioneer conditions, and 
when the movement of population toward this 
unoccupied land was constant and rapid, the 
buying of cheap lands was profitable. Under 
modern conditions, however, the ordinary 
** cheap'' farm is about as profitable to buy as a 
worn out automobile. A person with a me- 
chanical turn of mind might fix up and operate 
such an automobile successfully, and it might 
prove to be a very profitable investment. So it 
might be with a cheap farm, provided the 
operator knew exactly why it was cheap, and 
could make it valuable by expert ability. The 



FARM ADMINISTRATION 229 

average person who wishes to change his oc- 
cupation to become a farmer would run much 
less risk in attempting to farm in a pros- 
perous and well-developed neighbourhood. A 
successful business man, who had made a for- 
tune in lumbering, and who knew the value of 
timber on any piece of land, casually remarked 
that he knew practically nothing about the rela- 
tive merits of such and such situations for farm- 
ing, but that he knew enough not to buy a piece 
of land with the intention of farming it when 
the present owner had let it alone. 

First-class farmers will buy or rent only first- 
class farms, for the same reason that a first-class 
workman will work only with first-class tools. 

It is also true that the owner of a first-class 
farm wants to rent only to the first-class farmer. 
Any one, then, who wishes to follow the occu- 
pation of farmer should, besides studying the 
literature of the business, find an opportunity to 
work on a first-class farm under an operator or 
manager who knows his business. In this way 
a man who is strong physically, and alert in 
mind, may quickly learn to operate a good farm. 



230 FAEM MANAGEMENT 

Women as Managers. — Women may become effi- 
cient farm managers. Out of a list of selected 
farmers in a rather unfavourable agricultural 
district the only operator found making a 
labour-income above $500 was a woman. If at- 
tention were given to the matter it would in all 
probability be found that women played a large 
and important part in the efficient management 
of farms, even if nominally the husband may be 
considered the operator and the labour-income 
be credited to him. This is true of many busi- 
ness occupations besides farming. Successful 
banking, merchandising, and even political suc- 
cess, are known in many cases to be owing 
largely to the wife of the household. It is more 
likely to be the case in farming, however, be- 
cause the home stands in a relation to the gen- 
eral farm organisation that is not evident in 
other businesses. 

As a rule neither the wife nor the other mem- 
bers of the family of a doctor, a lawyer, a 
banker or a blacksmith could give even approxi- 
mately an intelligent record of the father 's busi- 
ness for a year. In the case of farming, how- 
ever, the writer has, in several cases, taken a 



FAEM ADMINISTRATION 231 

good record of the farm business from the 
mother, or from the sons and daughters of the 
family. 

The farm is well known to be an excellent 
place to train children in habits of work, and in 
responsibility. Many farmers, however, do not 
take full advantage of this opportunity. The 
average adult man or woman regard their chil- 
dren as dependents until they attain a specified 
age, say eighteen or twenty-one years old, then 
launch them on the world's business without 
having trained them to assume responsibility 
for the achievement of any definite project, or 
to follow skilfully a definite occupation. 

It is encouraging to find some farmers who 
have discovered how to include the home in the 
plan of farm organisation, and to realise the 
opportunities in interesting and training the 
children in the responsibility and art of manage- 
ment. 

This is the point where effective co-operation 
will begin. Members of a family who are made 
responsible for the successful management of 
certain enterprises or departments on the farm 
quickly develop an interest in their work, and 



232 FARM MANAGEMENT 

under proper direction will make the farm or- 
ganisation more efficient. 

Among the difficult problems of land-tenure is 
the disposal of the farm business to those who 
may lawfully inherit it. In many cases the farm 
is sufficiently large in area, and opportunities 
are such, that two or three members of a family 
may jointly operate it, by dividing responsibil- 
ity as suggested. In one case a 380-acre farm 
is being successfully operated by three brothers 
and a brother-in-law in joint ownership. One 
runs successfully a poultry department, another 
the dairy, the third a commercial orchard, while 
the fourth serves as the general superintendent. 

In another case a medium-sized farm is being 
operated under three departments ; an orchard 
department superintended by the father, a large 
and successful poultry plant by one son, while 
the general farming operations are being man- 
aged by another. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE STATE AND THE FARM 

All civilised nations today realise the im- 
portance of stimulating agricultural progress. 
Not only is the home population to be fed by the 
farmers, but modern nations regard it as proper 
and wise to seek markets abroad for farm prod- 
ucts, for in this way resources develop rapidly, 
population grows, wealth increases, and the na- 
tion rises in relative power and prestige. So 
agriculture, being of vital importance in sup- 
porting the life of a people, and in making the 
nation rich and powerful, is naturally first 
among industrial enterprises to receive proper 
consideration from the State. 

Training in Agriculture. — In our own country 
we have, besides the Federal Department of Ag- 
riculture, agricultural colleges and experiment 
stations in each State. These agencies working 
together have developed into one of the greatest 
institutions in the world for the attainment and 
dissemination of agricultural knowledge. Indi- 
rectly they are also important agencies for the 

233 



234 FAKM MANAGEMENT 

promotion of general scientific researcli, since 
the working out of teclinical problems in agri- 
culture necessitates advancement in the physical 
sciences. Agricultural colleges have gained a 
notable prominence lately among educational in- 
stitutions, and agricultural courses are getting 
a strong foothold in the high schools and in the 
rural schools. This widespread and growing 
interest in agricultural education indicates that 
the farm is recognised as holding a vital relation 
to the welfare of the nation ; indeed, more than 
half our population live on farms, and make 
their living by raising the materials to feed and 
clothe the rest. Outside of cotton and wheat, 
only a very small amount of farm products is 
exported. 

In spite of this increasing interest in agricul- 
tural training, one of the most important prob- 
lems now engaging the attention of the United 
States Department of Agriculture and the State 
agricultural colleges is a more direct and vital 
contact between the scientific workshop and the 
farm. Successful manufacturing plants cus- 
tomarily engage experts to work out the tech- 
nical problems involved in their business, and 



THE STATE AND THE FARM 235 

to plan a better organisation to distribute and 
market their products. Such institutions are 
working for greater efficiency along all lines. 
New ideas are generally welcomed; they are 
tested, however, before being established in 
practice. It is perfectly logical and in line with 
efficiency that the federal and state agencies of 
scientific agriculture should develop a similar 
relation with the farm. Until recently the prin- 
cipal agencies that have been used to carry the 
results of scientific research and experiment to 
the farm have been farmers' institutes, the agri- 
cultural papers, and the Bulletins issued by the 
Government and Agricultural Colleges. Indi- 
rectly, of course, county newspapers and city 
daily papers are important agencies for the 
spread of such knowledge, for they print infor- 
mation interesting to general readers and of 
practical value to farmers.^ 

iB. p. I. Circular No. 117, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
"The Relation of Agricultural Extension Agencies and Farm 
Practice," C. Beaman Smith and H. K. Atwood. This 
report showed that the greatest direct influence was through 
the agricultural papers. Sixty-five per cent, of the farmers 
took farm papers. About thirty per cent, attended farmers' 
institutes and about one-half of this number made use of the 
suggestions made. 



236 FARM MANAGEMENT 

The Farm Demonstration Work. — Within the 
last ten years a most important and successful 
agency has developed for carrying directly to 
the farm the results of agricultural investiga- 
tions. This agency is known as the farm-dem- 
onstrator or county agent, who is employed by, 
and works co-operatively with, the Department 
of Agriculture and the state agricultural col- 
leges. The fundamental idea underlying this 
work is that ^^all farmers of a commonwealth 
are properly students of the state agricultural 
college. ' ' 

In 1904, Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, a special 
agent of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
started the Farmers' Co-operative Demonstra- 
tion Work in the Southern States, where cotton- 
farms were being ravaged by the boll-weevil. 
The principal aim of Dr. Knapp was to exhibit 
on the farm in these States better methods of 
working cotton, so that higher yields could be 
made, and to introduce other crops adapted to 
the South which would give more diversity and 
hence result in greater profits and more reliable 
incomes. The county agent or demonstrator 
was the local representative of the Department, 




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THE STATE AND THE FAKM 237 

who secured the agreement of a group of inter- 
ested farmers to make a demonstration of a cer- 
tain farm-practice or of a specific crop on their 
farms. This work had to be done strictly in 
accordance with the best and most practical 
knowledge to be had from the state experiment 
stations and the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture. 

This plan proved so successful in the Cotton 
States, and became so widely known, that simi- 
lar work is being developed in all parts of the 
United States. Demonstration-work in the 
North through county agents originated with 
the Office of Farm Management of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, and was car- 
ried on as a rule in co-operation mth state 
agricultural colleges, as is now done every- 
where. 

Within the States the work is supervised by a 
man known as the State Leader, who is responsi- 
ble to the extension department of the college, 
and also acts for the Department of Agriculture. 
The county agents are joint representatives of 
the Department and of the state colleges, and 
also are in a real sense the representatives of the 



238 FARM MANAGEMENT 

fanners of the county, who share in the expenses 
of the work. 

It is only in counties where farmers show a 
real interest and a desire to support this work 
that county agents are appointed. In some 
places farmers and business men have formed 
an association known as a **Farm Bureau/' 
which has proved very effective in bringing 
about co-operative effort among farmers, and in 
many other ways increasing the efficiency of the 
county agent's work. 

The demonstration work applies not only to 
the practice of adult farmers, but it includes 
also what is known as *^club work,'' in which 
thousands of boys and girls are enrolled. This 
work aims at establishing better agriculture and 
better home economics through the young peo- 
ple. It teaches habits of industry and thrift, 
and co-operates with the public schools in 
supplementing text-book work with practical 
achievements. 

Statistics.— In the Southern States, the 1914 
report lists 33,276 farms on which demonstra- 
tions were made and 58,190 co-operators, farm- 
ers in some manner connected with the work. 



THE STATE AND THE FARM 239 

There were 40,015 boys and 28,503 girls enrolled 
in clubs. On the demonstration farms the aver- 
age yield of cotton was nearly doubled, and the 
increased yield of corn was about 16 bushels an 
acre. 

A recent report by C. Beaman Smith, agri- 
culturist in charge of farm demonstrations in 
the Northern and Western States, shows that 
during the year 1915, 365 county agents visited 
192,230 farms, and 79,756 farm-bureaus were 
organised. The planning of 253 drainage sys- 
tems was reported; 171 agents reported demon- 
strations on 241,479 acres of corn; 56 of these 
reported a yield above the average of 13 
bushels per acre ; and similar work was done on 
wheat, oats, potatoes, and other crops with 
marked increase in yields. These agents are 
helping the farmers to save a large amount of 
wealth by combating diseases among livestock. 
Eighty-one agents vaccinated 88,680 hogs, and 
farmers and veterinarians vaccinated 203,384 
more, the larger part of which would have died 
if this treatment had not been given. Ninety 
farmers^ exchanges and 164 purchasing and 
marketing associations were organised through 



240 FARM MANAGEMENT 

the agents. The farmers^ exchanges did a busi- 
ness valued at $327,610. No less than 29,225 
farms were supplied with labourers, and the 
number of labourers securing work through the 
exchanges was 5,488. The value of all business 
done through these agents in 1915 was $3,575,- 
373 and the approximate saving to farmers, 
$277,775. This shows the nature of the work 
of the county agent in all parts of the United 
States, but it is best known in the South, where 
it first began and has been longest in operation. 

Demonstrating Farm Business. — A new line of 
work taken up by the demonstrators in the 
northern part of the United States is that of 
making an analysis of the business of farming. 
This enables a farmer, with the assistance of 
the agent, to discover where wastes occur in his 
organisation. The main factors in successful 
farming in the community are carefully ana- 
lysed, giving a standard of comparison by 
which these factors on any individual farm may 
be measured. During the year 1914-15 more 
than 10,500 farms were analysed in this way. 

Educational Stimulus.— The county agents have 
had great influence in local educational work, di- 



THE STATE AND THE FARM 241 

recting it especially to agricultural problems. 
This has been done not only through the boys' 
and girls' clubs but through the school organi- 
sation of the county. In one year 4614 schools 
were induced to include more agriculture in 
their courses, 3988 farmers were induced to at- 
tend short courses in a college of agriculture, 
and about 68,000 attended local short courses 
held by the agents. A nation-wide scope has 
been given to the work of organising this move- 
ment through the passage by Congress in 1914 
of the Smith-Lever bill, under the provisions of 
which the Federal Government and the state 
governments co-operate in carrying on exten- 
sion work in agriculture and home economics 
through county agents and specialists. Under 
the provisions of the Smith-Lever Act each 
State receives $10,000 outright for this work 
from Federal sources. This appropriation is 
increased annually by the Government at the 
rate of about a half million dollars a year until 
at the end of eight years the total appropriation 
will reach $4,100,000. This additional amount 
is distributed to the States according to the pro- 
portion which the rural population of the State 



242 FARM MANAGEMENT 

bears to the total rural population of all the 
States. The State must raise a like amount 
each year to meet the additional appropriation. 
The final amount made available for county 
agent and other forms of extension work by this 
Act is $8,680,000. In county agent work the 
State and Government usually contribute not to 
exceed $1200 per county; the county through 
local taxation and otherwise contributing the 
remainder. 

In addition to the increased prosperity and 
satisfaction which ought to come to the indi- 
vidual farmer and to his family from this move- 
ment, there should develop a stronger commu- 
nity purpose and ideal leading to a realisation 
that each person and family are parts of a great 
national unit. 

BOOKS ON FARM MANAGEMENT OR ON RELATED 

SUBJECTS 

American Farm Management Association. Record of the pro* 
ceedings of annual meeting, 4th, 1913; 5th, 1914. [Wash- 
ington, D. C] 1914. 1915. 

BoGART, Eenest Ludlow. Economic history of the United 
States. 2d ed. New York [etc.], Longmans, Green and 
Co. 1914. 

Boss, Andrew. Farm management. Chicago, New York, 
Lyons & Caruahan. 1914. 



THE STATE AND THE FAKM 243 

Caed, Fred W. Farm management. New York, Doubleday, 

Page & Co. 1907. 
Caeveb, Thomas Nixon. Principles of rural economics. 

Boston [etc.], Ginn and Co. 1911. 
Carver, Thomas Nixon, compiler. Selected reading in rural 

economics. Boston [etc.], Ginn and Co. 1910. 
Cato, M. p., and Varko, M. T. Roman farm management, the 

treatises of Cato and Varro, done into English, with notes 

of modern instances. By a Virginia farmer. New York, 

Macmillan Co. 1913. 
Hays, W. M. Farm development. New York, London, Orange 

Judd Co. 1910. 
Hunt, Thomas F. The young farmer; some things he should 

know. New York, Orange Judd Co. 1912. 
Taylor, Henry C. An introduction to the study of agricul- 
tural economics. New York, London, Macmillan Co. 

1914. 
Warren, G. F. Farm management. New York, Macmillan 

Co. 1914. 
Warren, G. F., and Livermore, K. C. Laboratory exercises 

in farm management. New York, Macmillan Co. 1910. 



THE END 



Printed in the United States of America. 



npHE following pages contain advertisements of a few 
of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects. 



The Farmer and the New Day 

By KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD 
President Massachusetts Agricultural College 

Cloth, i2mo, $2.00 
Dr. Butterfield is dealing with the problems which con- 
front the farmer to-day, not merely in their local, or even 
in their national significance, but rather with the world 
phases of the question. It is his purpose to formulate as 
concrete an agricultural program as possible. The need of 
a rural policy and the necessity for education and organiza- 
tion are two points which he emphasizes. The book is one 
to appeal to agricultural leaders, rural organizers and edu- 
cators and members of grange farm bureaus particularly, 
as well as to all who make their living from the soil. 

The Little Town: 

Especially in Its Rural Relationships 

By HARLAN PAUL DOUGLASS 

Secretary American Missionary Association, 

Author of " The New Home Missions," etc. 

///., Cloth, i2mo. $1.50 
Here we have a study of the little town, its relationships 
and prospects, its people, its possibilities and its ideals. 

The book has grown out of the author's interest in rural 
progress. It is an effort to formulate a program which shall 
result in the realization on the part of the little town of some 
of its tremendous opportunities. 

Three Acres and Liberty 

By BOLTON HALL 

Revised Edition, III., Cloth, i2mo, $1.75 
" ' Three Acres and Liberty ' is no collection of fairy tales 
of the fortunes to be had by buying a hundred chickens or 
by cultivating tropical fruit. The author piles facts upon 
authenticated instance and successful experiment upon 
proved example, until there is no doubt about what can be 
done with land intensively treated. He shows also where 
the land may be found, what kind of land we must have, 
what it will cost and what to do with it." — New York Times, 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



PRACTICAL BOOKS FOR THE FARMER 

Farm Management 

By G. F. warren 
(Rural Textbook Series) 

Illustrated, ismo, $1.75 
This book teaches the necessity of efiicient farm organization and 
management so as to secure the farmer the best crops at the lowest 
price. Professor Warren shows the way to such efficiency and 
thoroughly discusses the more important phases of farm manage- 
ment from the selection and purchase of the farm to the marketing 
of its products. 



The Nursery Manual 



By L. H. bailey 

With Illustrations 

Cloth, i2mo. 

Professor Bailey's Nursery Book is the foundation of this volume, 
though the original has been entirely re-written and re-illustrated 
and appears now in The Rural Alanual Series. 

The book may be described as a complete guide to the multipli- 
cation of plants, aiming to give an account of the methods com- 
monly employed in the propagation and crossing of plants. 

The handling and sowing of seeds and spores, separation and 
division, layerage, the general requirements of cuttings and the 
various kinds, grafting, budding, nursery management — these are 
some of the topics taken up. 

The illustrations are all from new drawings and photographs. 

Manual of American Grape Growing 

By U. p. HEDRICK 

Horticulturist of the State Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 
With Illustrations 

Cloth, 1 2 mo. 

This is written as a complete popular treatise on grape-growing 
in North America. It discusses the practical questions of climatic 
limitations, choice of site, land and its preparation, fertilizing, 
tillage, planting, pruning and training, and marketing. It also has 
concise treatment of the diseases and the insects injurious to the 
grape. Special attention is given to descriptions of the leading 
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the vinifera grape as grown in California. 

Professor Hedrick has had long experience in the study of the 
grape in all its aspects, and the book will be found to be a useful, 
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue ITew York 



NEW FARM AND GARDEN BOOKS 

The Sugar-Beet in America 

By F. S. HARRIS 
Director of the Utah Experiment Station 

Illustrated, 12", $2.25 

Here is a thorough and practical guide book for farmers 
who are raising sugar-beets, for agriculturists in sugar com- 
panies, and for students of the sugar-beet in agricultural 
colleges. 

Dr. Harris has assembled here all the important facts and 
details regarding the raising and cultivation of the sugar- 
beet. There is also an account of the processes involved in 
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A special feature of the book is the large number of 
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charts — clarifying the text and adding much to the practical 
value of the book. 

Peach-Growing 

By H. p. GOULD 

Pomologist in Charge of Fruit Production Investigations 

Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department 

of Agriculture 

Illustrated, 12° , $2.00 

Here is a book which covers the general field of growing 
peaches and placing them within reach of the consumer. 

It is practical. It is detailed. It is a handbook for peach- 
growers of North and East, as well as South and West. 

Peach literature has been notably limited, except for ex- 
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practice of successful peach production. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



TWO STANDARD CYCLOPEDIAS 

Cyclopedia of American 
Agriculture 

Edited by L. H. BAILEY 

With 100 full-page plates and more than 2,000 illustrations in the 
text; four volumes; the set, $20.00 

Vol. I— Farms Vol. Ill— Animals 

Vol. II — Crops Vol. IV — The Farm and the Community 

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UBRARY OF CONGRESS 





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